Long Term Results Using Autologous Bone-Marrow Mononuclear Cell Implantation Therapy as a Limb Salvage Procedure in Patients with Severe PAD (EP Video)

The Use of Corticosteroids for Cardiopulmonary Bypass in Adults

The perioperative application of corticosteroids did not improve mortality rates beyond standard care or other secondary outcomes, such as myocardial infarction, stroke, renal failure, and infection. The observed increased risk of myocardial damage in patients receiving corticosteroids in the SIRS trial is mainly related to the author-defined CK-MB threshold as indicator for early myocardial injury. Interestingly, the use of steroids may have some beneficial effects on secondary outcomes: they significantly decreased the risk of respiratory failure and pneumonia and shortened the length of ICU and hospital stay, but the mechanism involved in pulmonary injury is multifactorial and it is difficult to evaluate this result. Patients receiving steroids did not have a decreased incidence of atrial fibrillation shown by the two large trials unlike some previous small sample size trials have demonstrated.

Bilirubine and Lactate: Easy to Determine and Valuable to Predict Outcome in Cardiac Surgery

Three easily assessable and cheap laboratory parameters (bilirubin, lactate, and creatinine) are useful to predict 90-day mortality and length of stay in ICU. These findings might be helpful to give patients a reliable prediction about short and mid-term-survival and to improve the management of an ICU.