37 research outputs found
High-Flow Oxygen with Capping or Suctioning for Tracheostomy Decannulation
9 p.BACKGROUND
When patients with a tracheostomy tube reach a stage in their care at which
decannulation appears to be possible, it is common practice to cap the tracheostomy
tube for 24 hours to see whether they can breathe on their own. Whether
this approach to establishing patient readiness for decannulation leads to better
outcomes than one based on the frequency of airway suctioning is unclear.
METHODS
In five intensive care units (ICUs), we enrolled conscious, critically ill adults who
had a tracheostomy tube; patients were eligible after weaning from mechanical
ventilation. In this unblinded trial, patients were randomly assigned either to undergo
a 24-hour capping trial plus intermittent high-flow oxygen therapy (control
group) or to receive continuous high-flow oxygen therapy with frequency of suctioning
being the indicator of readiness for decannulation (intervention group).
The primary outcome was the time to decannulation, compared by means of the
log-rank test. Secondary outcomes included decannulation failure, weaning failure,
respiratory infections, sepsis, multiorgan failure, durations of stay in the ICU
and hospital, and deaths in the ICU and hospital.
RESULTS
The trial included 330 patients; the mean (±SD) age of the patients was 58.3±15.1
years, and 68.2% of the patients were men. A total of 161 patients were assigned
to the control group and 169 to the intervention group. The time to decannulation
was shorter in the intervention group than in the control group (median, 6 days
[interquartile range, 5 to 7] vs. 13 days [interquartile range, 11 to 14]; absolute
difference, 7 days [95% confidence interval, 5 to 9]). The incidence of pneumonia
and tracheobronchitis was lower, and the duration of stay in the hospital shorter,
in the intervention group than in the control group. Other secondary outcomes
were similar in the two groups.
CONCLUSIONS
Basing the decision to decannulate on suctioning frequency plus continuous highflow
oxygen therapy rather than on 24-hour capping trials plus intermittent highflow
oxygen therapy reduced the time to decannulation, with no evidence of a
between-group difference in the incidence of decannulation failure. (REDECAP
ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02512744.
Nurses' perceptions of aids and obstacles to the provision of optimal end of life care in ICU
Contains fulltext :
172380.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access
Continuous Packed Bed Reactor with Immobilized β-Galactosidase for Production of Galactooligosaccharides (GOS)
The β-galactosidase from Bacillus circulans was covalently attached to aldehyde-activated (glyoxal) agarose beads and assayed for the continuous production of galactooligosaccharides (GOS) in a packed-bed reactor (PBR). The immobilization was fast (1 h) and the activity of the resulting biocatalyst was 97.4 U/g measured with o-nitrophenyl-β-d-galactopyranoside (ONPG). The biocatalyst showed excellent operational stability in 14 successive 20 min reaction cycles at 45 °C in a batch reactor. A continuous process for GOS synthesis was operated for 213 h at 0.2 mL/min and 45 °C using 100 g/L of lactose as a feed solution. The efficiency of the PBR slightly decreased with time; however, the maximum GOS concentration (24.2 g/L) was obtained after 48 h of operation, which corresponded to 48.6% lactose conversion and thus to maximum transgalactosylation activity. HPAEC-PAD analysis showed that the two major GOS were the trisaccharide Gal-β(1→4)-Gal-β(1→4)-Glc and the tetrasaccharide Gal-β(1→4)-Gal-β(1→4)-Gal-β(1→4)-Glc. The PBR was also assessed in the production of GOS from milk as a feed solution. The stability of the bioreactor was satisfactory during the first 8 h of operation; after that, a decrease in the flow rate was observed, probably due to partial clogging of the column. This work represents a step forward in the continuous production of GOS employing fixed-bed reactors with immobilized β-galactosidases
Galacto-oligosaccharide Synthesis from Lactose Solution or Skim Milk Using the β-Galactosidase from Bacillus circulans
The synthesis of galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) catalyzed
by a
novel commercial preparation of β-galactosidase from Bacillus circulans (Biolactase) was studied, and
the products were characterized by MS and NMR. Using 400 g/L lactose
and 1.5 enzyme units per milliliter, the maximum GOS yield, measured
by HPAEC-PAD analysis, was 165 g/L (41% w/w of total carbohydrates
in the mixture). The major transgalactosylation products were the
trisaccharide Gal-β(1→4)-Gal-β(1→4)-Glc
and the tetrasaccharide Gal-β(1→4)-Gal-β(1→4)-Gal-β(1→4)-Glc.
The GOS yield increased to 198 g/L (49.4% w/w of total carbohydrates)
using a higher enzyme concentration (15 U/mL), which minimized the
enzyme inactivation under reaction conditions. Using skim milk (with
a lactose concentration of 46 g/L), the enzyme also displayed transgalactosylation
activity: maximum GOS yield accounted for 15.4% (7.1 g/L), which was
obtained at 50% lactose conversion