BackgroundFew data are available on the impact of levosimendan in refractory cardiogenic shock patients undergoing peripheral venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO). The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of levosimendan on VA-ECMO weaning in patients hospitalized in intensive care unit (ICU).MethodsThis retrospective cohort study was conducted in a French university hospital from 2010 to 2017. All patients hospitalized in ICU undergoing VA-ECMO were consecutively evaluated.ResultsA total of 150 patients undergoing VA-ECMO were eligible for the study. Thirty-eight propensity-matched patients were evaluated in the levosimendan group and 65 in the non-levosimendan group. In patients treated with levosimendan, left ventricular ejection fraction had increased from 21.5 ± 9.1% to 30.7 ± 13.5% (P < 0.0001) and aortic velocity–time integral from 8.9 ± 4 cm to 12.5 ± 3.8 cm (P = 0.002) 24 h after drug infusion. After propensity score matching, levosimendan was the only factor associated with a significant reduction in VA-ECMO weaning failure rates (hazard ratio = 0.16; 95% confidence interval 0.04–0.7; P = 0.01). Kaplan–Meier survival curves showed that survival rates at 30 days were 78.4% for the levosimendan group and 49.5% for the non-levosimendan group (P = 0.02). After propensity score matching analysis, the difference in 30-day mortality between the two groups was not significant (hazard ratio = 0.55; 95% confidence interval 0.27–1.10; P = 0.09).ConclusionsOur results suggest that levosimendan was associated with a beneficial effect on VA-ECMO weaning in ICU patients.
Little is known about cannula-related infection (CRI) in patients supported by extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). The aim of this study was to assess the incidence, the risk factors, prognosis, and microbiological characteristics of CRI in patients supported by ECMO. This retrospective cohort study was conducted in one intensive care unit (ICU). Among 220 consecutive patients with peripheral ECMO, 39 (17.7%) developed CRI. The incidence of CRI was 17.2 per 1,000 ECMO days. The main isolated microorganisms were Enterobacteriaceae (38%), Staphylococcus spp. (28.2%; 8.5% were methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus and 19.7% were coagulase-negative staphylococci), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (18.3%). Bacteremia was present in 23 cases (59.7%). In multivariate analysis, the risk factors for CRI were longer ECMO duration (p = 0.006) and higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score 2 (p = 0.004). Forty-one percentage of patients with CRI needed surgical management of the infected site. Cannula-related infection was not associated with higher in-hospital mortality (p = 0.73), but it was associated with a longer stay in ICU (p < 0.0001) and a longer stay in hospital (p = 0.002). In conclusion, CRI is frequent in patients with ECMO and associated with a longer stay in hospital. Risk factors for CRI were longer ECMO duration and higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score 2. Concomitant bacteremia was frequent (59.7%) and CRI should be strongly investigated in cases of positive blood culture.
Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) increases morbidity in Hepatitis B virus (HBV)-infected patients. In the mid-eighties, an outbreak of HDV fulminant hepatitis (FH) in the Central African Republic (CAR) killed 88% of patients hospitalized in Bangui. We evaluated infections with HBV and HDV among students and pregnant women, 25 years after the fulminant hepatitis (FH) outbreak to determine (i) the prevalence of HBV and HDV infection in this population, (ii) the clinical risk factors for HBV and/or HDV infections, and (iii) to characterize and compare the strains from the FH outbreak in the 1980s to the 2010 HBV–HDV strains. We performed a cross sectional study with historical comparison on FH-stored samples (n = 179) from 159 patients and dried blood-spots from volunteer students and pregnant women groups (n = 2172). We analyzed risk factors potentially associated with HBV and HDV. Previous HBV infection (presence of anti-HBc) occurred in 345/1290 students (26.7%) and 186/870 pregnant women (21.4%)(p = 0.005), including 110 students (8.8%) and 71 pregnant women (8.2%), who were also HBsAg-positive (p = 0.824). HDV infection occurred more frequently in pregnant women (n = 13; 18.8%) than students (n = 6; 5.4%) (p = 0.010). Infection in childhood was probably the main HBV risk factor. The risk factors for HDV infection were age (p = 0.040), transfusion (p = 0.039), and a tendency for tattooing (p = 0.055) and absence of condom use (p = 0.049). HBV-E and HDV-1 were highly prevalent during both the FH outbreak and the 2010 screening project. For historical samples, due to storage conditions and despite several attempts, we could only obtain partial HDV amplification representing 25% of the full-length genome. The HDV-1 mid-eighties FH-strains did not form a specific clade and were affiliated to two different HDV-1 African subgenotypes, one of which also includes the 2010 HDV-1 strains. In the Central African Republic, these findings indicate a high prevalence of previous and current HBV-E and HDV-1 infections both in the mid-eighties fulminant hepatitis outbreak and among asymptomatic young adults in 2010, and reinforce the need for universal HBV vaccination and the prevention of HDV transmission among HBsAg-positive patients through blood or sexual routes.
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