RONE POSITIONING WAS ADVOcated 30 years ago 1 to improve oxygenation in patients with hypoxemic acute respiratory failure (ARF) receiving mechanical ventilation. Dramatic oxygenation improvement using prone positioning was reported in severely hypoxemic patients. 2 The mechanism of how the prone position improves oxygenation in this setting is still unclear. Postulated hypotheses in humans include alveolar recruitment, 3 redistribution of ventilation 4 toward dorsal areas that remain well Author Affiliations are listed at the end of this article.

Introduction Preventing carriage of potentially pathogenic micro-organisms from the aerodigestive tract is an infection control strategy used to reduce the occurrence of ventilatorassociated pneumonia in intensive care units. However, antibiotic use in selective decontamination protocols is controversial. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of oral administration of a probiotic, namely Lactobacillus, on gastric and respiratory tract colonization/infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains. Our hypothesis was that an indigenous flora should exhibit a protective effect against secondary colonization.

In thrombocytopenic patients, sepsis is the leading cause of TP. Bone marrow aspirates may yield significant information on TP mechanisms and contribute to the subsequent management of patients, especially those with absolute TP.

A 2-minute ethanol lock does not decrease the frequency of infection of DCs in ICU patients. Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT 00875069).

S. Tubiana). y Bruno Hoen and Xavier Duval contributed equally. z The members of COMBAT study group are listed at the Acknowledgments section. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Clinical Microbiology and Infectionj o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . c l i n i c a l m i c r o b i o l o g y a n d i n f e c t i o n . c o m