Decompressive craniectomy can effectively decrease ICP and increase CPP in patients with TBI and refractory elevated ICP. Further studies are necessary to define the group of patients that can benefit most from this procedure.

No abstract

OSA patients presented subclinical manifestations of abnormal swallowing, when analyzed using nasal fibroscopy, possibly associated with neuromuscular injury caused by snoring.

We bacteriologically analyzed 156 species of Enterobacteriaceae, isolated from 138 patients with community-acquired diabetic foot ulcers, in a prospective study made at a diabetic center and at the Federal University of Ceará, Brazil, from March, 2000, to November, 2001.The samples were cultured using selective media, and identification, susceptibility tests and detection of plasmidmediated-extended-spectrum-β β β β β-lactamase (ESBL) producing strains were made with conventional and automated methods. The most frequently occurring pathogens were K. pneumoniae (21.2%), Morganella morganii (19.9%) and E. coli (15.4%). High resistance rates were noted for ampicillin, first generation cephalosporin, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, tetracycline, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid and chloramphenicol. ESBL-producing strains were detected in 6% of the patients. Resistance among gram-negative bacteria has become increasingly common, even in community-acquired infections.