Short- and long-term outcome of patients aged 65 and over after cardiac surgery

To analyze the short and long-term outcome of patients aged 65 years and over, after cardiac surgery. Over a 12-year period we analyzed 1750 patients with a mean age of 70.09 3.94 years. They were classified into three age groups: between 65 and 69 (n = 709), between 70 and 74 (n = 695) and 75 years and above (n = 346). Follow-up information was obtained by telephone conversation after a 6-month and 3-year period of discharge from the hospital. Included in the follow-up were 1235 patients and an interview was conducted with 501 (40.6%) patients or their next of kin. Even though the in-hospital morbidity was highest in the oldest age group, there were no significant differences between groups (p = 0.051). There was no significant difference between groups in the length of hospital stay. The greatest in-hospital mortality was noted in the oldest age group (p = 0.046) compared to patients in the age groups between 65 and 69 and between 70 and 74 years old (p = 0.023 and p = 0.036). In the follow-up study, there was a significantly smaller telephone feedback response in the oldest age group compared to the youngest group (p = 0.003). There were no differences between the groups with respect to mortality and cardiac death after the 6-month and 3-year periods of discharge from hospital. Our data showed that despite a poor short – and long-term outcome in patients aged 75 and over, all patients had an acceptable operative risk

Electrical impedance tomography as ventilation monitoring in ICU patients

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT), as a monitoring tool of regional lung ventilation, is radiation-free imaging with high temporal resolution. Te most important purpose of EIT is to visualize the distribution of tidal volume in diferent lung regions especially between dependent (dorsal in supine patients) and non-dependent (ventral in supine patients) regions. Many clinical studies evaluated the applicability of PulmoVista® 500 (Dräger Medical GmbH, Lübeck, Germany) and similar EIT devices in estimating optimal PEEP afer recruitment maneuvers (RM) in lung healthy patients and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), ventilation distribution in cystic fbrosis, COPB, pneumonia and respiratory diseases syndrome in infants