PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

E Zeballos

Publications and source records attributed to E Zeballos.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Percutaneous tracheostomy: comparison of Ciaglia and Griggs techniques.

BACKGROUND: Although the standard tracheostomy described in 1909 by Jackson has been extensively used in critical patients, a more simple procedure that can be performed at the bedside is needed. Since 1957 several different types of percutaneous tracheostomy technique have been described. The purpose of the present study was to compare two bedside percutaneous tracheostomy techniques: percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy (PDT) and the guidewire dilating forceps (GWDF). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective study in two medical/surgical intensive care units (ICUs) was carried out. Sixty-three critically ill patients who required endotracheal intubation for longer than 15 days were consecutively selected to undergo PDT (25 patients) or GWDF (38 patients) technique. Intraoperative and postoperative complications were recorded. RESULTS: Age (mean +/- standard error) was 63 +/- 1.1 years. The patients had been mechanically ventilated for an average of 19.8 +/- 1.2 days. The GWDF technique was significantly faster than PDT technique (P = 0.02). Fifteen complications occurred in 10 out of 63 (15%) patients. They were as follows: tracheal tear (one patient in each group; in one case this was due to false passage); transient hypotension (one patient in the PDT group and two patients in the GWDF group); atelectasis (one patient in the PDT group); and haemorrhage (one patient in the PDT group and three patients in the GWDF group). In both patients with tracheal tear, reduced arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2) with concomitant subcutaneous emphysema ensued. CONCLUSION: We found no statistical differences between complications with both techniques. The surgical time required for the GWDF technique was less than that for PDT.

Aged↗

[Prevalence of gallbladder lithiasis in a Uruguayan population].

Ultrasound examinations were carried out in 693 volunteers from the health care personnel of the Hospital de Clinicas of Montevideo, with the aim of studying the prevalence of gallbladder gallstones in Uruguay, the proportion of symptomatic and asymptomatic people and its association to some definite risk factors. The prevalence found was 10.4%, which, according to the sample's size, is representative of the general population with a confidence of 99%. Sixty five per cent of gallstones carriers were asymptomatic. A statistically significant association with the following factors was found: people between 31 and 50 years old, slight obesity, and, for women, to have children. A marked tendency with the following factors was found, though it was not statistically significant: female sex, and a familiar history of mother carrying gallstones. Considering all these factors as a whole, the probability of having gallstones reached 19%. Results are discussed and compared with those of foreign publications. It is concluded that uruguayan people with more possibilities of having gallstones are: women between 31 and 50 years old, obese, with children, and whose mother has or had the same disease.

Adolescent↗

[The importance of HLA antigens in alcoholic cirrhosis].

The existence of a relationship between HLA and the possibility of the development of an alcoholic cirrhosis is researched in this paper. This work was done from 1982 to 1984, by the staff of four clinics of the Medicine School of the University of Uruguay. We studied 47 alcoholics with portal cirrhosis, 19 non-cirrhotic alcoholics and 250 healthy nonalcoholic controls. We confirmed with liver biopsy the cirrhosis in the first group and in the second, liver biopsy was performed in order to assure that they had no cirrhosis. Table I shows the histocompatibility antigens which were tested in the 3 groups. Levels of significance were obtained from exact Fisher test with Yates correction for discontinuity; Pc (corrected P) and RR (relative risk) were also determined. In the alcoholics with portal cirrhosis, the HLABW40 showed a Pc less than 0,005 (RR = 3,93). In the non-cirrhotic alcoholics no significative association was found. We conclude that the carrier of the genetic marker HLABW40, has almost 4 times more chances to develop a cirrhosis as consequence of chronic alcoholic abuse. The presence of this marker, in our patients, has no association with the possibility that an individual becomes an alcoholic abuser. We think that if this data are confirmed in a wider study, some guidelines for the prevention of alcoholic cirrhosis may be established.

Adult↗