Publications
Polyurethane cuffed endotracheal tubes to prevent early postoperative pneumonia after cardiac surgery Vrije Universiteit Brussel KU Leuven Ghent University
OBJECTIVE: Patients receiving mechanical ventilation through an endotracheal tube are at increased risk for pneumonia. Because microaspiration of contaminated supraglottic secretions past the endotracheal tube cuff is considered to be central in the pathogenesis of ventilator-associated and postoperative pneumonia, better sealing of the upper trachea by the endotracheal tube cuff could possibly reduce this risk. We therefore postulated that ...
Hallucinations after Cardiac Surgery Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Background and Objective: Hallucinations after cardiac surgery can be a burden, but their prevalence and phenomenology have not been studied well. Risk factors for postoperative hallucinations, as well as their relation to delirium are unclear. We aimed to study the prevalence and phenomenology of hallucinations after cardiac surgery, and to study the association between hallucinations and delirium in this population. Materials and Methods: ...
Case-control study on the interplay between immunoparalysis and delirium after cardiac surgery Vrije Universiteit Brussel
BACKGROUND: Delirium occurs frequently following cardiothoracic surgery, and infectious disease is an important risk factor for delirium. Surgery and cardiopulmonary bypass induce suppression of the immune response known as immunoparalysis. We aimed to investigate whether delirious patients had more pronounced immunoparalysis following cardiothoracic surgery than patients without delirium, to explain this delirium-infection association.
...Hybrid thoracoscopic surgical and transvenous catheter ablation versus transvenous catheter ablation in persistent and longstanding persistent atrial fibrillation (HARTCAP-AF) Vrije Universiteit Brussel
BACKGROUND: Success rates with conventional transvenous endocardial pulmonary vein isolation in patients with persistent and longstanding persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) are variable due to advanced electrical and structural remodeling of the atria. As a consequence, more extensive endocardial lesions, minimally invasive thoracoscopic surgical techniques, and hybrid ablation (combining thoracoscopic epicardial surgical and endocardial ...