Critical Care Alert – May 1, 2005

May 1, 2005

• Health Care Workers’ Hands Spread VRE

  In this study from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Duckro and colleagues carried out a careful molecular epidemiologic study of the transmission of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) to the hands of health care workers from both intact skin areas of VRE-colonizes patients and various environ mental surfaces in the patients vicinity.

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• Peak Pressures During Manual Ventilation

  In this study from the University of Vermont, Turki and colleagues sought to determine the tidal volumes delivered and peak airway pressures generated during manual ventilation (hand bagging). They recruited experienced, off-duty respiratory therapists who worked regularly in the ICU and thus frequently performed manual ventilation.

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• How Many Sputum Specimens are Necessary to Rule Out TB?

  Leonard and colleagues reviewed all the sputum specimens obtained to test for tuberculosis for nearly 4 years in a large public teaching hospital. Sensitivities of first, second, and third acid-fast bacilli (AFB) smears were calculated overall and also separately for HIV-negative and HIV-positive patients.

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• Special Feature: Primary Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage

  Intracerebral hemorrhage is defined as extravasation of blood into the brain parenchymal tissue or ventricles. This form of hemorrhage may be primary (as in hypertension or amyloid angiopathy) or it can be secondary to vascular lesions or coagulopathy, or trauma or tumor.

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• Pharmacology Watch: The FDA Pulls Another COX-2 Inhibitor Off the Market

  Is Holding NSAIDs Prior to Surgery Rational?; Low-Dose Aspirin: Men vs Women; FDA Actions

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• Clinical Briefs in Primary Care supplement

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