Active clinical trials for "Respiratory Insufficiency"

A novel device and process to move patients has been developed, particularly useful for patients with severe respiratory failure (ie COVID 19) who require prone ventilation (moving from their back onto the stomach and then onto back for a 16 hour cycle, usually for several days). This study will assess staff impressions of the feasibility of the use of this device/ process to prone patients as well as their impressions of the use of this device, compared to repositioning sheets, for the general care of the ICU patient. An economic analysis of the use of the AMMP for proning compared to movement without assists will be done

A significant number of elderly patients experience a complication after cardiac surgery. This study aims to determine if postoperative remote monitoring of vital signs can be used to identify medicatie risk factors for vital sign deterioration in older cardiac surgery patients. Single center pilot study. 100 older patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Continuous remote monitoring of vital signs after ICU discharge Main study endpoint is vital sign deterioration.

This study aims to investigate, with a case-crossover design, the effects of a short course of preventive CPAP administered in the immediate postoperative period in patients at high-risk of developing postoperative pulmonary complications undergoing major vascular surgery.

Over the last two decades, non-invasive ventilation (NIV) has been widely reported as an effective method to avoid the need of endotracheal intubation (ETI) and improve survival in the acute care setting. Given the risks associated with either premature NIV discontinuation or delays in NIV interruption, evaluating readiness to weaning from NIV is a critical challenge in patients with Acute Respiratory Failure (ARF). Up to date, bedside measurements used to predict NIV outcomes are extremely limited. NIV weaning as well as decision of ETI are mainly supported by clinical and physiologic parameters. More sophisticated techniques used to predict weaning outcome during spontaneous breathing trials have never achieved a bedside broad-spectrum use due to their invasiveness, the inconsistent results in demonstrating reproducible outcomes, the requirements of additional trainee personnel and complicated equipment, and the difficult application in awake and non-intubated patients. Recently, ultrasound has been used for the rapid assessment of diaphragm function in acutely ill patients. The advantages of the ultrasound in detecting diaphragm dysfunction as compared with other techniques are the less invasiveness, the avoidance of radiation hazards and the bedside feasibility. Direct imaging of changes in diaphragm thickening (DT) during spontaneous breathing may provide the assessment of both the muscle and the respiratory pump functioning. Indeed, DT has been correlated with the diaphragm strength and the muscle shortening. The volume of diaphragm muscle mass remains constant while it contracts. Consequently, as the muscle shortens it thickens itself and measurements of changes in such a thickening (DT) are inversely related to changes in diaphragm length. Studies in patients with diaphragm paralysis have confirmed the absence of DT. Moreover, since the diaphragm is the major muscle of inspiration, the presence of diaphragm shortening and contraction may predict successful extubation in patients who are invasively ventilated. The aim of the present study is to assess whether DT as measured by ultrasound may predict NIV outcome in patients with de-novo ARF admitted to the Emergency Department (ED).

ICU care of patients considered "palliative" but without contraindications to admission to intensive care, for whom a do-not intubate order decision was made upon admission represents a particular target for non-invasive oxygenation techniques. The benefits of non invasive ventilation (NIV) in this population are debated especially in cancer patients. The more recently used nasal humidified high flux canula oxygenation (HFNC) therapy may have benefits over NIV in these patients. It is supposed to have better tolerance and could allow better compliance and thus higher efficiency. These potential benefits are major for such a population for which tolerance and symptomatic relief are priority goals

Objective: Arterial blood gas (ABG) is essential in the clinical assessment of potential acutely ill patients venous to arterial conversion (v-TAC), a mathematical method, has recently been developed to convert peripheral venous blood gas (VBG) values to arterialized VBG (aVBG) values. The aim of this study is to test the reliability of aVBG compared to ABG in an intensive care unit (ICU) setting. Method: Consecutive patients admitted to the ICU with pH values <7,35 or >7,45 are included in this study. Paired ABG and aVBG samples are drawn from patients via arterial catheter, central venous catheter and/or peripheral venous catheter and compared.

Although many studies have investigated the clinical benefits of nasal high flow during acute hypoxemic respiratory failure, there is no data (and even less so recommendations) on how to best conduct this technique, including its initiation and its weaning periods. Investigators will assess in a multicenter, observational study, the way clinicians use nasal high flow therapy in patients with acute respiratory failure in order to try identify one or more strategies that may be then compared in an interventional study.

There is currently no good description of patients surviving an episode of acute hypercapnic respiratory failure in the ICU. For instance, the prevalence of OSA and sleep hypoventilation in a stable clinical condition is not known in this population. This prospective cohort describes the clinical profile, predictors of readmission (followed over a year), and the prevalence of sleep-related breathing disorders (polysomnography in a stable clinical condition 3 months after ICU discharge) in patients treated for an episode of acute hypercapnic respiratory failure in the ICU.

Tracheostomy is worldwide performed in Intensive Care Unit (ICU). According to the current literature, indication for percutaneous tracheostomy (PDT) in ICU are: difficult prolonged weaning, prolonged mechanical ventilation, loss of airway reflex, copious secretions, upper airway obstruction. Many studies have focused on the comparison between different PDT techniques and complication. The aim of our study is to evaluate the procedural features, complications, ICU mortality, quality of life, post-discharge mortality of patients undergoing different PDT techniques performed in ICU.

Mechanical ventilation is a therapeutic method used in order to keep gas exchange adequate to cell metabolism in patients with acute respiratory failure. It is currently proved that, although on one hand the use of this method keeps gas exchange, on the other hand it promotes and supports pulmonary inflammatory processes (VILI). A recent study about the effect of positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) on DLCO (diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide) in patients undergoing invasive mechanical ventilation has proved that patients without any evident pulmonary disease (negative medical history, negative chest clinical examination, normal chest X-ray radiography and normal arterial oxygen tension [PaO2]) after 24 hours of invasive mechanical ventilation show a significant worsening of pulmonary gas exchange properties. The authors have supposed that this worsening may be caused by an early alteration of alveolar-capillary membrane caused by mechanical ventilation itself. This hypothesis finds support in some studies carried out on animal models which founds that mechanical ventilation, even when low tidal volumes (Vt) are set for a few hours, is able to induce lung injury (as shown by histologic findings). The most sensitive and specific tools the investigators can currently rely on for the study of alveolar-capillary membrane are the measurement of diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (DLCO) and the evaluation of plasmatic levels of pulmonary surfactant protein B (SPB). DLCO is a standard, widely diffused technique for the evaluation of functional alterations of alveolar-capillary membrane and it is currently available also for patients undergoing invasive mechanical ventilation. SBP is produced by type II pneumocytes in the alveoli. An increase of its plasmatic levels is correlated to a decay of pulmonary gas exchange; SPB thus can be considered an alveolar-capillary membrane anatomical damage marker. The primary end-point of this study is to evaluate the changes of anatomical (SPB) and functional (DLCO) features of alveolar-capillary membrane between the spontaneous breathing and mechanical ventilation as well as the progressive changes affecting DLCO and SPB over time during general anaesthesia and mechanical ventilation in patients with otherwise healthy lung undergoing elective surgery. This in order to check the timing of the observed worsening of alveolar-capillary membrane function, and to find out if the process is progressive in time. The secondary end point is to check if the alterations of functional features of alveolar membrane (DLCO) are proportionate to the increase of alveolar injury marker (SPB), in order to understand if the worsening of alveolar-capillary membrane function is to be attributable to an anatomical damage or to a physiologic change of the ventilation-perfusion matching.