Preliminary Report of a Prospective, Randomized Trial of Underwater Seal for Spontaneous and Iatrogenic Pneumothorax (original) (raw)

Spontaneous pneumothorax: time to depart from the ‘chest tube underwater seal’?

2018

Initial management of spontaneous pneumothorax has traditionally been inserting a chest tube and attaching it to an underwater seal and hospitalizing the patient. New options have emerged that allow management to be on an outpatient basis without the need for hospitalization. These options are needle aspiration (similar to aspiration of effusion) or attaching the chest tube to a one-way valve. So, is chaining a patient with spontaneous pneumothorax to their hospital bed because of the heavy jar attached to the chest tube the most prudent way of management? This review attempts to answer this question.

SEVENTH REPORT OF THE JOINT NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON PREVENTION, DETECTION, EVALUATION, AND TREATMENT OF HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE

The National High Blood Pressure Education Program presents the complete Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure. Like its predecessors, the purpose is to provide an evidence-based approach to the prevention and management of hypertension. The key messages of this report are these: in those older than age 50, systolic blood pressure (BP) of greater than 140 mm Hg is a more important cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factor than diastolic BP; beginning at 115/75 mm Hg, CVD risk doubles for each increment of 20/10 mm Hg; those who are normotensive at 55 years of age will have a 90% lifetime risk of developing hypertension; prehypertensive individuals (systolic BP 120-139 mm Hg or diastolic BP 80-89 mm Hg) require health-promoting lifestyle modifications to prevent the progressive rise in blood pressure and CVD; for uncomplicated hypertension, thiazide diuretic should be used in drug treatment for most, either alone or combined with drugs from other classes; this report delineates specific high-risk conditions that are compelling indications for the use of other antihypertensive drug classes (angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin-receptor blockers, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers); two or more antihypertensive medications will be required to achieve goal BP (Ͻ140/90 mm Hg, or Ͻ130/80 mm Hg) for patients with diabetes and chronic kidney disease; for patients whose BP is more than 20 mm Hg above the systolic BP goal or more than 10 mm Hg above the diastolic BP goal, initiation of therapy using two agents, one of which usually will be a thiazide diuretic, should be considered; regardless of therapy or care, hypertension will be controlled only if patients are motivated to stay on their treatment plan. Positive experiences, trust in the clinician, and empathy improve patient motivation and satisfaction. This report serves as a guide, and the committee continues to recognize that the responsible physician's judgment remains paramount. (Hypertension. 2003;42:1206-1252.)

Underwater study of arterial blood pressure in breath-hold divers

Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985), 2009

Knowledge regarding arterial blood pressure (ABP) values during breath-hold diving is scanty. It derives from a few reports of measurements performed at the water's surface, showing slight or no increase in ABP, and from a single study of two simulated deep breath-hold dives in a hyperbaric chamber. Simulated dives showed an increase in ABP to values considered life threatening by standard clinical criteria. For the first time, using a novel noninvasive subaquatic sphygmomanometer, we successfully measured ABP in 10 healthy elite breath-hold divers at a depth of 10 m of freshwater (mfw). ABP was measured in dry conditions, at the surface (head-out immersion), and twice at a depth of 10 mfw. Underwater measurements of ABP were obtained in all subjects. Each measurement lasted 50-60 s and was accomplished without any complications or diver discomfort. In the 10 subjects as a whole, mean ABP values were 124/93 mmHg at the surface and 123/94 mmHg at a depth of 10 mfw. No significan...

Pressure and Hypertension , Clinical Challenges and Dilemmas beyond Current Guidelines

2013

Many guidelines adopt static numeric thresholds as a basis for identification, classification and management of hypertension. In real life and clinical practice blood pressure may be elevated in many situations in absence of hypertension. On the other hand, other situations in which the patient may be hypertensive meanwhile having normal or merely high normal static blood pressure measurement. Challenges with numeric diagnosis include – phenomena of false negative e.g. masked hypertension and phenomena of false positive e.g. white coat hypertension. False positive and false negative labeling of patients may have grave consequences. Many challenges exist with current guidelines and tools: Normal biologic variations and responses of blood pressure, inaccurate measurement which may occur due to variety of causes: patient, observer or technique factors in addition to labile, masked and paroxysmal hypertension. Abnormal patterns of blood pressure which are not considered in current guide...