Venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation to treat hypercapnia in a morbidly obese patient.

Morbid obesity plays an increasingly important role in healthcare. Patients who are severely obese often suffer from a range of medical problems. One problem is obesity-related hypoventilation syndrome with its resulting hypercapnia. We report a case of a 33-year-old female patient who was in an extraordinarily bad medical state, with severe hypercapnia (pCO2 15.1 kPa), sepsis, acute anuric kidney failure and resulting acidosis (pH 6.96). Her body mass index was 84 kg/m2. Her chances of survival were considered very low after failed attempts at noninvasive ventilation. Based on prior research, we refrained from intubation and chose venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation to treat the hypercapnia. In the entire medical literature, we are not aware of a similarly extraordinary case of obesity-related hypoventilation syndrome that could finally be treated successfully. The idea behind this case report is to consider venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation as an alternative to intubation in this patient collective.

Liposomal amphotericin B treatment of Old World cutaneous and mucosal leishmaniasis: A literature review.

Old World cutaneous and mucosal leishmaniasis is a potentially serious disease. Systemic treatment approaches with pentavalent antimonials, liposomal amphotericin B, fluconazole and miltefosine are increasingly used despite the absence of supportive evidence - to date, no prospective clinical trials have been conducted for systemic treatment of these diseases. We performed a literature search to delineate the contemporary evidence for the use of liposomal amphotericin B, and found that although cure rates of 17/20 (85%) were achieved in immune competent patients with Old World cutaneous leishmaniasis and cure rates of 10/13 (77%) for Old World mucosal leishmaniasis due to L. infantum, the available data is highly limited with high variation in total treatment dosages. The presented findings reflect a lack of consensus on the optimal treatment dosage and on the schedule of application.

Miltefosine for Mucosal and Complicated Cutaneous Old World Leishmaniasis: A Case Series and Review of the Literature.

Complicated Old World cutaneous leishmaniasis (OWCL) and Old World mucosal leishmaniasis (OWML) constitute an indication for systemic treatment. To date, there no controlled clinical studies that compare treatment options for these diseases. We compiled a case series of 24 cases successfully treated with miltefosine. We conclude that oral miltefosine is an effective treatment option for both OWCL and OWML.