9 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
Postoperative pneumonia is a major complication in patients undergoing thoracic surgery. It leads to considerable morbidity and contributes to perioperative morbidity. There is evidence in literature that supports the use of strategies for improved oral hygiene and specialized endotracheal tubes in preventing ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) in mechanically ventilated patients. This study aims at utilizing a combination of these interventions in the perioperative period in patients undergoing planned thoracic surgical procedures.
The purpose of this study is to determine if the frequency of use of incentive spirometry during the stay in the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) increases with visual and auditory electronic reminders, as compared to not having those reminders.
All surgical procedures carry with them the risk of infection. Even a minor infection can extend the hospitalization after cardiac surgery. The average minimum increase in length of stay for a single infection is three days. One of the many means used to reduce post-operative infections is the preventative, or "prophylactic", administration of antibiotics just before and just after surgery. Because antibiotics, and for that matter surgery itself, alter the body's natural immune and inflammatory responses and the makeup of the bacteria in the intestine, there is a great deal of scientific interest in using the supplementation of bacteria that naturally reside in the intestine. It is felt that by doing so, the alterations in the immune response may be corrected and the patient better able to fight infections. There are studies using probiotics that have demonstrated a reduction in infection rates in patients undergoing abdominal surgery. Subjects will be patients at high risk for infection including those with any one or more of the following characteristics: over 65 years old, poor heart function (ejection fraction \<40), diabetes (insulin dependant or non-insulin dependant), peripheral vascular disease, kidney dysfunction (creatinine level \>2mg/dl), obesity (body surface area \> 2 m2), low serum protein levels (albumin \< 2.5 mg/dl), infection of the heart valve (endocarditis), or on any antibiotics other than standard prophylaxis before surgery. The safety of these products has been very well established. Patients who consent to enter the study will receive the synbiotic mix, or a placebo, which comes in a powder that may be mixed with a drink, or washed down into the stomach through the NG tube if the patient is still on a ventilator. Dosing will be initiated within four hours of patient arrival in the Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit and will continue on a twice daily basis for the duration of their admission days. Infection and diarrhea data will be monitored.
Point-of-care gastric ultrasound will be used to measure stomach contents postoperative in patients who underwent colorectal surgery. Stomach volume and status (empty or full) will be compared retrospectively to the standard clinical criteria for diet advancement to determine if stomach volume via ultrasound is associated with successful diet advancement, nausea/vomiting, nasogastric tube replacement, length of stay, and other clinical outcomes. Clinicians performing clinical care will be blinded to the ultrasound exam results.
This study evaluates the omission of incentive spirometry use following bariatric surgery. Half of participants will receive an incentive spirometer while the other half will not. Oxygen saturation and pulmonary complications after surgery will be measured to examine the effectiveness of incentive spirometry.
Intraoperative intravenous fluid management practice varies greatly between anesthesiologists. Postoperative fluid based weight gain is associated with major morbidity. Postoperative respiratory complications are associated with increased morbidity, mortality and hospital costs. The literature shows conflicting data regarding intraoperative fluid resuscitation volume. No large-scale studies have focused on intraoperative fluid management and postoperative respiratory dysfunction. Hypotheses: Primary - Liberal intraoperative fluid resuscitation is associated with an increased risk of 30 day mortality Secondary - Liberal intraoperative fluid resuscitation is associated with increased likelihood of postoperative respiratory failure, pulmonary edema, reintubation, atelectasis, acute kidney injury and peri-extubation oxygen desaturation.
This pilot study will evaluate how well version 2 of the ICOUGH app, a bed-side mobile app increases patients' adherence to a postoperative protocol called ICOUGH. Specific outcomes, such as length of hospital stay, postoperative lung complications, unplanned intubations, and death will be assessed in participants who do and those who do not use the ICOUGH Recovery app, positing that a smartphone intervention should improve these outcomes over time. ICOUGH is a mnemonic that stands for each step of a protocol shown to decrease lung-related complications of surgery. It stands for Incentive spirometry (a breathing device that expands the lungs), Coughing and deep breathing, Oral hygiene, Understanding (patient and family education), Getting out of bed at least three times daily, and Head-of-bed elevation. The ICOUGH protocol was developed at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and has been shown to improve patient outcomes by decreasing postoperative pneumonia by 38%, unplanned intubations by 40%, and all adverse outcomes by 40%, which has resulted in over $5 million in cost savings for BMC in a two-year period. There is an instructional paper pamphlet with intuitive pictures for each step of ICOUGH, and patient subjects can log how many times they've done each step.
The goal of this study to evaluate whether eliminating the use of non-depolarizing neuromuscular blocking agents (NMBA) for maintenance of general anesthesia reduces postoperative pulmonary complications in higher risk patients.
Objectives 1. To characterize mechanical ventilation practices during general anesthesia for surgery 2. To assess the dependence of intra-operative and post-operative pulmonary complications on intra-operative Mechanical Ventilation (MV) settings