Tropical fevers: Management guidelines.

Tropical fevers were defined as infections that are prevalent in, or are unique to tropical and subtropical regions. Some of these occur throughout the year and some especially in rainy and post-rainy season. Concerned about high prevalence and morbidity and mortality caused by these infections, and overlapping clinical presentations, difficulties in arriving at specific diagnoses and need for early empiric treatment, Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine (ISCCM) constituted an expert committee to develop a consensus statement and guidelines for management of these diseases in the emergency and critical care. The committee decided to focus on most common infections on the basis of available epidemiologic data from India and overall experience of the group. These included dengue hemorrhagic fever, rickettsial infections/scrub typhus, malaria (usually falciparum), typhoid, and leptospira bacterial sepsis and common viral infections like influenza. The committee recommends a 'syndromic approach' to diagnosis and treatment of critical tropical infections and has identified five major clinical syndromes: undifferentiated fever, fever with rash / thrombocytopenia, fever with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), fever with encephalopathy and fever with multi organ dysfunction syndrome. Evidence based algorithms are presented to guide critical care specialists to choose reliable rapid diagnostic modalities and early empiric therapy based on clinical syndromes.

Light emitting diodes versus compact fluorescent tubes for phototherapy in neonatal jaundice: a multi center randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether light-emitting diode (LED) phototherapy is as efficacious as compact fluorescent tube (CFT) phototherapy for the treatment of non-hemolytic jaundice in healthy term and late preterm neonates. STUDY DESIGN: Multi centre open label randomized controlled trial. SETTING: Four tertiary care neonatal units. SUBJECTS: Healthy term and late preterm neonates with non-hemolytic jaundice. INTERVENTION: Single-surface LED or CFT phototherapy. PRIMARY OUTCOME VARIABLE: Duration of phototherapy. RESULTS: A total of 272 neonates were randomized to receive LED (n=142) or CFT (n=130) phototherapy. The baseline demographic and biochemical variables were similar in the two groups. The median duration of phototherapy (IQR) in the two groups was comparable (26 (22-36) h vs. 25(22-36) h; P=0.44). At any time point, a similar proportion of neonates were under phototherapy in the two groups (log-rank test, P=0.38). The rate of fall of serum total bilirubin (STB) during phototherapy and the incidence of failure of phototherapy were also not different. An equal proportion of neonates had a rebound increase in STB needing restarting of phototherapy. Side effects were rare, comparable in the two groups and included hypothermia, hyperthermia, rash, skin darkening and dehydration. CONCLUSIONS: LED and CFT phototherapy units were equally efficacious in the management of non-hemolytic hyperbilirubinemia in healthy term and late preterm neonates.