Young Min Koh

Acute Pulmonary Edema Caused by Inhalation of Nitrogen Dioxide

A 68 year-old male was admitted with complaint of dyspnea and nonproductive cough which developed 6 hours after accidental inhalation of nitrogen dioxide. On admission, acute pulmonary edema and severe hypoxemia were found. With oxygen and bronchodilator therapy, diffuse alveolar consolitation and his dyspnea were improved from the following day. He was discharged at 8th hospital day with prednisolone 30mg daily for prevention of bronchiolitis obliterans. During 6 weeks of follow up, there was no evidence of bronchiolitis obliterans.

Two Cases of Acute Epiglottitis with Sitting up Position, Chin Thrust Forward, Having Dyspnea

급성 후두개염은 상기도 폐색에 따른 치명적인 결과를 초래할 수 있는 질환으로 주의 깊은 호흡관찰과 아울러 급성 상기도 폐색의 초기 징후를 빨리 인지하고 적절한 기관내 삽관술이나 기관 절개술 등으로 기도를 확보해야 하는 심각한 질환이다. 1978년 Cantrell 등은 호흡곤란을 동반한 소아의 급성 후두개염 환자에서 후두의 부종이 진행함에 따라 앉은 자세에서 상체를 구부리고 턱을 내밀어서 호흡하는 특이한 이학적 소견을 기술한 바 있는데, 이러한 자세를 취함으로서 기관이 당겨져 상부기도의 장력을 증가시켜 후두개 및 주위 연조직의 부종에 의한 기도 폐쇄를 완화시킬수 있기 때문인 것으로 생각된다. 따라서 급성 후두개염 환자에서 턱을 내말고 목을 쭉 뻗어서 호흡하는 이학적 소견은 후두 부종에 의한 상기도 폐색이 임박하였음을 시사하는 소견이라 할 수 있겠다. 본 저자들은 앉은 자세에서 목을 쭉 뻗어서 호흡하는 특이한 이학적소견을 보이는 급성 후두개염 환자 2예를 경험하였기에 문헌고찰과 함께 보고하는 바이다. 【Acute epiglottitis is a life threatening inflammatory. disease of the upper airway mainly in children, however, the recent reports about acute epiglottitis in adults are increasing. The common symptoms are sore throat, dysphagia, dyspnea and salivary drooling. As the laryngeal edema progresses, the patient sits up, leans forward, with the chin thrust forward, having obvious difficulty breathing. Early recognition and proper airway maintenance until the inflammatory edema subsides are essential steps to avoid a possible life threatening upper airway obstruction. We experienced two cases of acute epiglottitis with sitting up position, chin thrust forward, having dyspnea.】

Weaning Following a 30 Minutes Spontaneous Breathing Trial

Background : Weaning is the process of switching a patient from mechanical ventilator to spontaneous breathing. A number of different weaning techniques can be employed. At recent study, conventional spontaneous breathing trial was superior to other techniques, such as intermittent mandatory ventilation(IMV) or pressure support ventilation(PSV). But adequate observation time of the spontaneous breathing trial was not determined. We reported the effectiveness of weaning and extubation following a 60 minutes spontaneous breathing trial with simple oxygen supply through the endotrachial tube. In this study, we tried to shorten the spontaneous breathing time from 60 minutes to 30 minutes. If weaning success was predicted after 30 minutes spontaneous breathing, extubation was done without reconnection with ventilator. Methodes : Subjects consisted of 42 mechanically ventilated patients from August 1994 to July 1995. The weaning trial was done when the patients recovered sufficiently from respiratory failure that originally required ventilatory assistance, the patients became alert and showed stable vital sign, and arterial tension was adequated( > 55 mmHg) with less than 40% of inspired oxygen fraction. We conducted a careful physical examination when the patients was breathing spontaneously through the endobronchial tube for 30 minutes. We terminated the trial if a patients was any of following signs of distress; cyanosis, diaphoresis, tachypnea(above 30 breaths per minute), and extreme tachycardia. Patients who had none of this features during spontaneous breathing for 30 minutes were extubated promptly. Result : 17 weaning trials of 15 patients were done in 42 mechanically ventilated patients. Successful weaning and extubation was possible in 14 trials of total 17 trials. In this 14 patients, 8 patients were extubated after 30 minutes spontaneous breathing, 3 patients were extubated after 60 minutes spontaneous breathing, and 3 patients needed over 3 hours for extubation from weaning. We found similar overall success rate compared with weaning following a 60 minutes spontaneous breathing trial. Conclusion : From the result of present study, we believe that weaning and extubation from mechanical ventilation following a 30 minutes spontaneous breathing with supply through the endotracheal tube is a simple and effective method.