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P Thienprasit

Publications and source records attributed to P Thienprasit.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

Physiological and metabolic response to isolated closed-head injury. Part 1: Basal metabolic state: correlations of metabolic and physiological parameters with fasting and stressed controls.

Studies of the metabolic and physiological response to closed-head injury have intimated the presence of persistent hypermetabolism. To more fully define and evaluate the metabolic response to head trauma, a prospective study was conducted in patients with isolated closed-head injuries. Metabolic and cardiopulmonary data were obtained for a 7-day period. Patients with multiple injuries or infections, or those who received steroids, were excluded. The basic treatment regimen utilized hyperventilation, bed rest with head elevation, intracranial pressure monitoring, mild fluid restriction, and mannitol as needed. No exogenous nutritional support was given. Intrastudy trends and comparsion with data from unstressed fasting patients and stressed patients were noted. Mean Glasgow Coma Scale scores were 4.4 +/- 1.5 initially, but rose to a mean of 8.2 +/- 3.7 by Day 7. While the responses of cardiac index, CO2 production, lactate/pyruvate ratio, and arteriovenous O2 content difference (AVO2D) were initially elevated, these parameters declined over the course of 7 days. The AVO2D was equivalent to the fasting level by Day 5. Metabolic data, including most amino acid levels in plasma, showed an initial equivalence to stress control levels and a pattern similar to that in non-stressed control subjects by Day 7. Nitrogen and 3-methyl histidine excretion were persistently elevated for the full 7 days. Patients with isolated closed-head injury seemed to be initially hypermetabolic, but this process appeared to resolve by 1 week; the persistent nitrogen excretion may reflect equilibration of muscle mass to the existing level of activity (bed rest). After the first few days, nitrogen excretion may give an erroneous index of the level of metabolic stress and the type or amount of nutritional support needed.

Adolescent↗

Paranasal sinusitis: a common complication of nasotracheal intubation in neurosurgical patients.

Sinusitis secondary to nasotracheal intubation has not been reported to occur in neurosurgical patients. Over a 1-year period, 11 patients admitted to the Intensive Care/Trauma Unit at St. Paul Ramsey Medical Center developed this entity. The mean age of these patients was 36 +/- 4 years; 7 were trauma victims, 3 had each had a subarachnoid hemorrhage, and 1 had suffered hypertensive hemorrhage. The patients presented with fever of unknown origin (FUO) and evidence of persistent hypermetabolism without an obvious cause. In 8 cases, the diagnosis was not suspected until mucopurulent nasal discharge was noted. Three additional cases were evaluated for suspected sinusitis before the occurrence of discharge. The mean duration of intubation before the diagnosis of sinusitis was 7.8 +/- 1.5 days. The diagnosis was confirmed by sinus films with a Waters view in 7 cases or by computed tomographic scanning in 4 cases and by bacteriological cultures. Two cases involved only the maxillary sinus on the side of intubation; the rest were polysinusites. The organisms involved included gram-positive and gram-negative species; all were polymicrobial with a single organism predominant. Secondary pulmonary involvement was common, and 4 patients revealed a bacteremia consistent with the major sinus organism. One patient developed septic shock. Treatment involved either orotracheal intubation or tracheostomy. This was curative in all cases. It is concluded that neurosurgical patients nasally intubated are at risk for sinusitis, which can have untoward effects such as septicemia or pulmonary infection. A high degree of suspicion will permit early diagnosis and treatment.

Adult↗

Effect of delayed local cooling on experimental spinal cord injury.

The authors report studies indicating that delayed local cooling is effective in minimizing the neurological deficits of experimental spinal cord injury in cats. Cortical evoked responses were useful in predicting the neurological outcome; untreated animals whose evoked response disappeared for 6 hours failed to recover whereas all treated animals in the same group recovered dramatically. Decompression by laminectomy alone proved ineffective. Possible explanations for the therapeutic effects of cooling and the significance of the delay are briefly discussed.

Animals↗

Distribution of activity in spinal pathways evoked by experimental dorsal column stimulation.

Experiments were performed in rhesus monkeys to determine the distribution of activity evoked in spinal pathways by dorsal column stimulation. It was shown that many pathways in both the dorsal and ventral quadrants of the cord can be activated either directly or transsynaptically by stimulation with electrodes of the type implanted clinically. Moreover, the transsynaptically evoked responses recorded in each quadrant had somewhat different characteristics. Therefore, since the activation of each group of pathways may have differing effects in modifying the preception of noxious stimuli, the authors believe that changes in electrode position and stimulus parameters may be important in obtaining the therapeutic value of spinal cord stimulation for relief of pain.

Animals↗

Supraspinal interactions resulting from experimental dorsal column stimulation.

Experiments were performed on rhesus monkeys to examine the hypothesis that stimulation with dorsal column electrodes of the type implanted clinically could alter the responses evoked in supraspinal nuclei through pathways in the ventral quadrant of the spinal cord. Dorsal column stimulation did produce changes in responses evoked in supraspinal nuclei; this effect could not be ascribed to a conduction block in ascending pathways. These results suggest that the mechanism of action of the dorsal column stimulator need not be dependent on interactions in the dorsal horn.

Animals↗