Roentgenographic mimics of pneumonia in the critical care unit.

Clinicians are confronted with a complex challenge when a patient is admitted to a critical care unit (CCU) with a significant chest roentgenography (CXR) abnormality. The etiology of a new infiltrate seen on CXR in a patient already in the CCU is more difficult to establish, but is of equal concern.

Aspiration pneumonia. Strategies for early recognition and prevention.

Aspiration is the result of dysfunction during the oral, pharyngeal, or esophageal stage of deglutition. Depending on the type of aspirate, the resultant lung injury may include chemical or bacterial inflammation or obstruction of the airways. Tools for evaluation include roentgenography, upper GI tract studies, bronchoscopy, and esophageal pH studies. Medical management is primarily supportive. Because aspiration pneumonia has a high morbidity rate, prevention involving early recognition and modification of predisposing factors whenever possible is critical for improving outcomes.

Laparoscopic surgery and its potential for medical complications.

Laparoscopic surgery is very popular among physicians and patients because this technique is associated with safety, shorter hospital stay, early return to normal activity, and cosmetic acceptance of the operative scar. Although the procedure involves minimal invasion and tissue damage, it has potentially serious complications, including cardiopulmonary effects that result mainly from hypercarbia and raised intraabdominal pressure caused by pneumoperitoneum. Absorbed carbon dioxide from the peritoneal cavity tends to cause acidosis. Leakage of the gas into tissue spaces may induce subcutaneous emphysema, pneumothorax, pneumomediastinum and pneumopericardium. Cardiac effects include arrhythmias, hypotension, cardiac arrest, gas embolism, pulmonary edema, and myocardial ischemia or infarction. Some of these effects, though rare, are serious and potentially fatal. Physicians should anticipate these problems in their patients undergoing laparoscopic procedures. This review discusses the technique of and physiologic considerations in laparoscopic surgery as well as its potential complications.

Submandibular tissue obstruction of tracheostomy tube: reversal with "chin sling".

We report on a 55-year-old woman with a tracheostomy who had unexplained respiratory failure from acute nocturnal shortness of death. During the second day of admission, the patient noticed that her "second chin" folded over the tracheostomy on neck flexion, occluding her artificial way. The patient jury-rigged a strap to retain the submental tissue from occluding the opening of the tracheostomy tube. She was subsequently free from obstructive symptoms with good oxygen saturation even with neck flexion. She was consequently discharged with a presumptive diagnosis of acute upper airway obstruction. We believe that this unusual complication of the tracheostomy tube may be more common than appreciated. Accordingly, patients with a tracheostomy should be evaluated through a full range of body and neck positions. Increases in body fat and tissue relaxation should be suspected as possible causes occlusion of tracheostomy tubes. The application of a "chin sling" can reverse this unusual upper airway obstruction until definitive correction by surgical lipectomy is performed.