We herein describe a 70-year-old woman who presented with respiratory failure due to extensive lung adenocarcinoma. Despite advanced disease, care in the intensive care unit with ventilator support was performed because she was a newly diagnosed patient and was considered to have the potential to recover after cancer treatment. Because prompt control of the cancer was needed to treat the respiratory failure, empirical treatment with an oral epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor was initiated before confirmation of EGFR-mutant adenocarcinoma, and the patient was successfully treated. Later, EGFR-mutant adenocarcinoma was confirmed.
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Lung cancer with superior vena cava syndrome diagnosed by intravascular biopsy using EBUS-TBNA Daegeun Lee, Seong Mi Moon, Dongwuk Kim, Juwon Kim, Haseong Chang, Bumhee Yang, Suk Hyeon Jeong, Kyung Jong Lee Respiratory Medicine Case Reports.2016; 19: 177. CrossRef
Tracheal tumors are very rare disease, which may cause dyspnea, obstructive pneumonia and life-threatening hypoxemia, depending on the site of the lesion and the severity of the narrowing. Such patients frequently die within hours or days due to suffocation. Patients who expressed upper airway stenosis, should be secured the airways prior to the diagnosis and treatment commonly. Then, treatment plan should be determined. For the relief of such stenosis, various modalities of therapy including surgery, laser photoresection, balloon dilatation and sometimes stent insertion have been used. Tracheobronchial stent insertion has been a good therapeutic option in these patients in point of avoiding morbidities associated with surgery. We report a case of repeated tracheobronchial stenosis by infiltrating tumor mass after metallic stent insertion in a 48-year-old man. The patient was treated successfully by Natural stent insertion with rigid bronchoscopy after removal of previous inserted metallic stent.
Maeng Real Park, So Young Park, Kyeongman Jeon, Won Jung Koh, Man Pyo Chung, Hojoong Kim, O Jung Kwon, Gee Young Suh, Jin Seok Ahn, Myung Ju Ahn, Ho Yeong Lim
BACKGROUND There are only inadequate studies on the characteristics of severe pneumonia in the patients who have solid cancer and who are treated with cytotoxic chemotherapy and also on the usefulness of the various severity index scores. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed 31 patients who were treated with cytotoxic chemotherapy because of solid cancer and who were admitted to the medical ICU at Samsung Medical Center from April 2007 to August 2008. RESULTS The median age of the 31 patients was 64 years old (34-79). The types of solid cancer were lung cancer (19, 61.3%), gastroesophageal cancer (4, 12.9%), breast cancer (2, 6.5%), liver cancer (1, 3.2%), ovarian cancer (1, 3.2%) and other types of cancer (4, 12.9%). The hospital mortality rate was 64.5%. We were able to determine the pathogen of 19 (61.3%) patients; S. pneumoniae (6), S. aureus (3), Candida species (3), P. aeruginosa (2), K. pneumoniae (1), Pneumocystis jiroveci (1) and others (3). There were no statistically differences of the laboratory data and severity index scores (PSI, CURB-65, APACHE II, SOFA, SAPS 3) between the survivors and nonsurvivors, except the P/F ratio. CONCLUSIONS The hospital mortality rate of severe pneumonia in patients who had solid cancer and who received cytotoxic chemotherapy was high. The major pathogen was S. pneumoniae.
The severity indexes for general pneumonia were not useful to these patients.
BACKGROUND The role of glucocorticoids for treating persistent acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is matter of debate. In the previous studies, the side effects of moderate doses of glucocorticoids might have negated positive effects of glucocorticoids. This study aimed at determining the feasibility of administering "low-dose" glucocorticoid to treat the patients who suffer with persistent ARDS. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of twelve patients with ARDS of at least seven days' duration and who were treated with "low-dose" glucocorticoid (starting dose of 1 mg/kg) between June 2007 to December 2008. The patients were divided by whether or not they were successfully weaned from the ventilator after glucocorticoid therapy. The baseline characteristics and physiologic parameters were recorded for up to 7 days after starting glucocorticoid therapy. RESULTS Five patients (42%) were included in the weaned group. There was no significant difference in the clinical characteristics and the physiologic parameters between the two groups on the day of ARDS. Yet the weaned group had a significantly lower Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score, as compared to that of the failed group [3 (3-6) vs 8 (5-12), p = 0.009)] at start of glucocorticoid treatment. After 3 days of glucocorticoid therapy, there was significant improvement in the PEEP, the PaO2/FIO2 ratio, the PCO2, the SOFA score and the Murray Lung Injury Score of the weaned group, as compared to that of the failed group.
There were no major neuromuscular side effects from the therapy. CONCLUSIONS This study suggests that the "low-dose" glucocorticoid therapy is feasible and that the SOFA score and the physiologic parameters may assist in determining whether or not to initiate and to continue glucocorticoid therapy for the patients who are suffering with persistent ARDS.
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A Case of Activated Charcoal Aspiration Treated by Early and Repeated Bronchoalveolar Lavage Han Min Lee, Jae-Seok Park, Jae Yun Kim, Ji Yeon Lee, Byung Kyu Ahn, Hyo-Wook Gil, Jae-Sung Choi Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases.2012; 72(2): 177. CrossRef
Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome with Chemical Pneumonitis after Aspiration of Activated Charcoal - A Case Report - Suhyun Kim, Na Ree Kang, In Sohn, Heon Lee, Yoon Kyung Lee, Sook Hee Song The Korean Journal of Critical Care Medicine.2010; 25(2): 112. CrossRef
BACKGROUND The prognosis of hemato-oncology (HMO) patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) is poor and predicting the mortality is important for decision making at the time of ICU admission and for administering aggressive treatment. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed 309 patients who were admitted to the medical ICU (MICU) at Samsung Medical Center from July in 2005 to June in 2006. We calculated their Simplified Acute Physiology Score II (SAPS II) and the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score at the time of ICU admission and we investigated the relationship between the two scoring systems and the hospital mortality. RESULTS Among the 309 patients, the hospital mortality was 41.2%, and the mean SAPS II/SOFA score at ICU admission was 45.4 +/- 19.5/8.1 +/- 4.6. Seventy-nine (25.6%) patients had hemato-oncological diseases. Their hospital mortality was 65.8%, and the mean SAPS II/SOFA score at the time of ICU admission was 53.9 +/- 18.6/9.7 +/- 4.4, which was higher than that of the non-HMO patients (p = 0.00). The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for the SAPS II/SOFA score for predicting the mortality was 0.794 +/- 0.05/0.785 +/- 0.051 (p = 0.00/p = 0.00) for the HMO patients. There was no significant difference in discrimination ability between the two scoring systems (p > 0.05). None of the HMO patients with a SAPS II/SOFA score of 70/14 or higher survived. CONCLUSIONS Both the SAPS II and SOFA scores at the time of ICU admission were similarly effective for predicting the hospital mortality. The two scoring systems could be useful tools for decision making at the time of ICU admission and for administering aggressive treatment.
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Association of Peripheral Lymphocyte Subset with the Severity and Prognosis of Septic Shock Jin Kyeong Park, Sang-Bum Hong, Chae-Man Lim, Younsuck Koh, Jin Won Huh The Korean Journal of Critical Care Medicine.2011; 26(1): 13. CrossRef