Bundle implementation including an antimicrobial-impregnated catheter dramatically decreased EVD-related infections. Training and situational awareness of appropriate practice, assisted by the checklist, plus use of the antibiotic-impregnated catheter resulted in sustained reduction in ventriculitis.

The clinical course of Behcet's disease (BD) as a multisystemic disorder with a remitting-relapsing nature is insufficiently explored. As complete remission should be aimed in all inflammatory diseases, we investigated the frequency of complete remission in patients with BD followed in long-term, routine practice. In this retrospective study, 258 patients with BD who were regularly followed in outpatient clinics were assessed. The demographic and clinical data for active organ manifestations and treatment protocols were evaluated, and "complete remission" for this study was defined as no sign of any disease manifestation in the current visit and the preceding month. Two hundred fifty-eight patients with BD (F/M 130/128, mean age 41.1 ± 11.5 years) were included to the study. Mucocutaneous disease was present in 48.4 % (n = 125). Mean visit number was 6.8 ± 2.7, and mean follow-up duration was 45.8 ± 36.5 months. Patients were clinically active in 67.2 % (n = 1,182) of the total visits (n = 1,757), which increased to 75.6 % (68.1-90.3) when the month preceding the visit was also included. The most common active manifestation was oral ulcers (39.4-63.2 %) followed by other mucocutaneous manifestations and musculoskeletal involvement. When multivariate analysis was performed, oral ulcers, which are the main cause of the clinical activity, negatively correlated with immunosuppressive treatments (β = -0.356, p < 0.000) and age (β = -0.183, p = 0.04). It is fairly difficult to achieve complete remission in BD with current therapeutic regimens. The reluctance of the clinician to be aggressive for some BD manifestations with low morbidity, such as mucocutaneous lesions and arthritis, might be influencing the continuous, low-disease activity state, especially due to oral ulcers, in BD patients.

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Healthcare-associated pneumonia (HCAP) represents a major diagnostic challenge because of the relatively low sensitivity and specificity of clinical criteria, radiological findings, and microbiologic culture results. It is often difficult to distinguish between pneumonia, underlying pulmonary disease, or conditions with pulmonary complications; this is compounded by the often-subjective clinical diagnosis of pneumonia. We conducted this study to determine the utility of post-mortem lung biopsies for diagnosing pneumonia in tissue donors diagnosed with pneumonia prior to death. Subjects were deceased patients who had been hospitalized at death and diagnosed with pneumonia. Post-mortem lung biopsies were obtained from the anatomic portion of the cadaveric lung corresponding to chest radiograph abnormalities. Specimens were fixed, stained with hematoxylin and eosin, and read by a single board-certified pathologist. Histological criteria for acute pneumonia included intense neutrophilic infiltration, fibrinous exudates, cellular debris, necrosis, or bacteria in the interstitium and intra-alveolar spaces. Of 143 subjects with a diagnosis of pneumonia at time of death, 14 (9.8 %) had histological evidence consistent with acute pneumonia. The most common histological diagnoses were emphysema (53 %), interstitial fibrosis (40 %), chronic atelectasis (36 %), acute and chronic passive congestion consistent with underlying cardiomyopathy (25 %), fibro-bullous disease (12 %), and acute bronchitis (11 %). HCAP represents a major diagnostic challenge because of the relatively low sensitivity and specificity of clinical criteria, radiological findings, and microbiologic testing. We found that attending physician-diagnosed pneumonia did not correlate with post-mortem pathological diagnosis. We conclude that histological examination of cadaveric lung tissue biopsies enables ascertainment or rule out of underlying pneumonia and prevents erroneous donor deferrals.

özKarbamazepin oldukça sık kullanılan bir anti-epileptik ajandır. İntoksikasyon durumunda komaya kadar ilerleyebilen nörolojik semptomlar, kardiyak aritmiler, solunum depresyonu ve nistagmus gibi göz bozuklukları görülebilir. Spesifik bir antidotu olmadığı için genellikle destek tedavisi gerekir. Yüksek oranda proteine bağlı bulunması nedeniyle konvansiyonel hemodiyaliz ile temizlenmesi beklenmez ve karbon hemoperfüzyon standart bir tedavi yaklaşımıdır. Bu olgu sunumu ile 23 yaşında bipolar bozukluk tanısı bulunan kadın hastanın intihar amaçlı aldığı yüksek doz karbamazepin ile intoksikasyonunun yüksek etkinlikli hemodiyaliz ve karbon hemoperfüzyon ile başarılı tedavisi ve bu iki yöntemin birbiri ile karşılaştırılması üzerinde durulmaktadır.anaHTaR SözCÜKlER: Karbamazepin, İntoksikasyon, Hemodiyaliz, Hemoperfüzyon aBSTRaCT Carbamazapine is a commonly used antiepileptic agent. Neurological abnormalities which can progress to coma, arrhythmias, respiratory depression and eye abnormalities such as nystagmus are seen in an intoxication setting. There is no specific antidote for the treatment of carbamazepine intoxication and supportive therapy is generally recommended. Carbamazepine is not removed through conventional hemodialysis as it highly bound to proteins. Charcoal hemoperfusion has been reported as the standard effective treatment method. Herein we report a 23-year-old woman with high dose carbamazepine overdose treated with high efficiency hemodialysis and charcoal hemoperfusion. We also discuss a comparison of the methods used for carbamazepine intoxication.

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