Impact of the implementation of a Sepsis Code hospital protocol in antibiotic prescription and clinical outcomes in an intensive care unit. / Impacto de la implantación de un Código Sepsis intrahospitalario en la prescripción de antibióticos y los resultados clínicos en una unidad de cuidados intensivos.

INTRODUCTION: A study was performed to analyze the impact of an in-hospital Sepsis Code (SC) program on use of antibiotic and clinical outcomes. DESIGN: Quasi-experimental observational retrospective study. SETTING: Polyvalent 11 beds ICU belonging to a tertiary Universitary hospital. PATIENTS: Patients admitted consecutively to the ICU with diagnosis of severe sepsis or septic shock. INTERVENTIONS: A post intervention group (POST-SC) (September 2012-August 2013) was compared with a historical group (PRE-SC) used as control (January-December 2010). VARIABLES: Antibiotic treatment, therapeutic antibiotic strategy, mortality and length of stay. Antibiotic consumption was expressed as defined daily doses (DDD)/ 100 stays. RESULTS: 42 patients with SS/SS in POST-SC group and 50 patients in PRE-SC group were consecutively recluted and further analyzed. Total antibiotic consumption (DDD) was similar in both groups. Rate of de-escalation therapy was significantly higher in POST-SC group (75% vs 30,8%, p<0,005) while prescription of restricted antibiotics was significantly lower (74% vs 52%, p=0,031). Finally POST-SC patients showed a significantly decrease in hospital and 28 days mortality rates [23% vs 44%, (p=0,035) and 31% vs 56% (p=0,014) respectively] as well as a reduction in ICU length of stay compared to PRE-SC cohort (5 days vs 10,5 days, p=0,05). CONCLUSION: The implementation of a Sepsis Code-hospital protocol is associated to an improvement in the management of antibiotic therapy with a significant increase in de-escalation therapy and lesser utilization of restricted use antibiotics, as well as a significant reduction in mortality, and a tendency towards shorter ICU length stay.

[Analysis of early tracheostomy and its impact on development of pneumonia, use of resources and mortality in neurocritically ill patients]. / Análisis de la traqueotomía precoz y su impacto sobre la incidencia de neumonía, consumo de recursos y mortalidad en pacientes neurocríticos.

OBJECTIVE: We analyze the most suitable time to perform tracheostomy in neurocritically ill patients. We compare morbimortality and use of resources between those patients in which tracheostomy was done early (9 days), in a selected group of patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We made an observational prospective study involving a group of patients diagnosed as traumatic brain injury (TBI) or stroke, whose tracheostomy was performed during their stay at the Intensive Care Unit. We compared two groups: a) early tracheostomy (during first 9 days of ICU stay); b) late tracheostomy (made on 10th day or later). As variables, we studied: demographic data, severity of illness at admission, admittance department, diagnosis, length of intubation, length of mechanical ventilation (LMV), sedation and antibiotic treatment needs, ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) events, ICU length of stay and mortality. We calculated relative risk of suffering from pneumonia and made a multivariate logistic regression to establish which factors were associated with an increased risk of developing pneumonia. Statistical signification p

[Wegener's granulomatosis presenting with ARDS and acute kidney failure with neutrophil anticytoplasmic+ antibodies]. / Granulomatosis de Wegener de presentación con SDRA y fracaso renal agudo con anticuerpos anticitoplasma de neutrófilos.

We report a case of adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) associate to renal failure in a patient labeled of "round pneumonia" some weeks before. An open biopsy was made that only showed typical findings of ARDS. The patient was treated with corticosteroids and cyclophosphamide because of cANCA positivity. We discuss the utility of this determination in Wegener disease and we conclude that this determination should be made in this clinical setting and start immunosuppressive treatment when cANCA is positive.