Purpose: To evaluate the demographical characteristics of patients who underwent percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy procedure in the neurology intensive care clinics. Material and Methods: Patients who underwent percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy procedure in neurology intensive care clinics between 2015-2017 were included in this study. Demographical characteristics of the cases were retrospectively evaluated. Findings: In total, 50 patients (21 women, 29 men) were evaluated as the study group. Mean duration of follow-up was 40.12±30.19 days. All patients who underwent percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy procedure had neurological disorders. Mean age of the patient group was 73±15.8 years. Mean Glasgow coma score (GCS) as evaluated on the day of PEG decision was 9.18±3.6. Five patients developed a skin infection on the site of PEG entry and one patient experienced peristomal bleeding. Conclusion: Enteral route must be the first option to be preferred for feeding patients who receive long-term inpatient treatment for neurological disorders in intensive care units. In patients who do not tolerate oral intake, percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy applications provide a route to give pre-prepared nutritional solutions. Long-term nutritional support can be given through this route with minimal complications.

How to cite / Atıf için: İnanç Y, İnanç Y. An evaluation of the infection agents and the demographic characteristics of patients followed up on a mechanical ventilator in neurology intensive care: A retrospective, single center, observational study.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) where it is permissible to download, share, remix, transform, and buildup the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be used commercially without permission from the journal. AbstractAim: The incidence of nosocomial infections is higher than other sites of the hospitals at intensive care units (ICU) because of high frequency of invasive interventions and multidrug resistant microorganism's prevalence. Ventilator-related pneumonia cases have the highest mortality risk among the nosocomial infections. The aim of this study was to evaluate the endotracheal aspirate cultures and the demographic characteristics of patients followed up on mechanical ventilation in Neurology Intensive Care. Methods: Our study was designed as a retrospective, cross-sectional and descriptive. Retrospective evaluation was made of 51 patients who were attached to a mechanical ventilator in the last 6 months and from whom a tracheal aspirate culture was taken.The endotracheal aspirate samples were taken under sterile conditions using a specifically designed catheter with the method of administering saline into the intubation tube and then aspiration. Blood culture results sent for analysis at the same time as the tracheal aspirate samples were also retrospectively evaluated in patients determined with positive production. A record was made of the demographic characteristics of the patients, diagnosis on admittance to ICU, risk factors, and microbial production in the tracheal aspirate culture. Results: In the first culture, there was no production in 22 (43.1%) cases, and Acinetobacter baumanii was determined in 14 (27.5%) patients, Pseudomonas aeruginosa in 3 (5.9%), Klebsiella pneumonia in 3 (5.9%), Staphylococcus aureus in 2 (3.9%), Corynebacterium striatum in 2 (3.9%), Acinetobacter baumanii + Pseudomonas aeruginosa in 2 (3.9%), Acinetobacter baumanii + Klebsiella pneumonia in 2 (3.9%), and Acinetobacter baumanii + Escherichia coli in 1 (2.0%). The second culture was taken from patients on the mean 11th day. In 3 (10.7%) patients there was no production in the second culture and in the other patients, Acinetobacter baumanii was determined in 15 (53.6%) patients, Pseudomonas aeruginosa in 3 (10.7%), Klebsiella pneumonia in 2 (7.1%), Escherichia coli in 1 (3.6%), Corynebacterium striatum in 1 (3.6%), and Acinetobacter baumanii + Pseudomonas aeruginosa in 3 (10.7%). Conclusion: The culture results in this study of patients admitted for neurological reasons were observed to be consistent with findings in literature. The high mortality rate of 64.7% in these ICU patients is due to the majority being ischemic stroke patients. This sugge...

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is among very rare, progressive, untreatable, neurodegenerative prion diseases. While the incidence is reported as 1/1000000 years in European countries, sporadic cases are rarely presented in Turkey. Clinical findings are in the form of rapid progressive dementia, myoclonus, cerebellar, pyramidal and extra pyramidal symptoms. Definitive diagnosis is established by histopathological examination. Our case is a 64-year-old male and 70-year-old female patients admitted with dizziness emerged as sub-acute weakness, nausea, vomiting, insomnia, imbalance and additional neuropsychiatric complaints. Focal activity slowness and common periodic sharp wave activities were observed in EEG. CJD was considered because bilateral symmetrical diffusion limitation was observed at both sides in the basal ganglia level in cranial diffusion MRI's and 14-3-3 protein was resulted as positive in CSF examinations. CJD, which is a very rare disease in patients presenting with progressive neuropsychiatric symptoms and seizure, is one of the diagnosis to be considered and we wanted to emphasize that there is no treatment for it and preventive measures should be taken.

Introduction:The frequency of dementia is increasing all over the world. This study aims to determine the prevalence of dementia mild cognitive impairment in the target nursing home population. Materials and methods: The diagnosis of dementia was made clinically. Imaging and biochemical tests were requested for differential diagnosis. Results: Of the 102 patients who participated in the study, 57 were males, and 45 were females. The average age of the total group was 74.81 years, the average age of the demented group was 77.96 years, and the average age of the non-demented group was 72.62 years. The prevalence of dementia was 22.5%, and the prevalence of mild cognitive impairment was 25.5%. Dementia was detected in 17.5% of males and 28.9% of females. In the dementia group was 25% who did not attend school, the primary school-secondary school was 22.6%, high school and college graduate was 18.8%. Conclusion:As the elderly population in Turkey has increased rapidly in recent years, an increase in the prevalence of dementia is expected. As in many other countries, this is a significant public health problem. Future epidemiological studies should aim to increase the quality of life of patients through diagnosis in the early stages, and the necessary precautions should be taken.

Aim: Cerebral palsy (CP) is a disorder of movement, muscle tone or posture that is caused by damage that occurs to the immature, developing brain, most often before birth. A good definition of the disease will help for early diagnosis and treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the sociodemographic, clinical and radiologic characteristics of patients who were followed up as CP diagnosis. Methods: Our study was designed as a retrospective, cross-sectional and descriptive. Forty-six patients with CP were included in the study. The age, sex, type of CP, accompanying clinical findings, presence of mental retardation, and cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data were recorded in the patient files. Results: The types of CP were determined as spastic hemiparesis in 12 (26.1%) patients, spastic paraparesis in 9 (19.6%), spastic tetraparesis in 17 (37.0%, most frequently)), ataxic in 3 (6.5%), hypotonic in 1 (2.2%), extrapyramidal in 2 (4.4%) and mixed type in 2 (4.4%). In the MRI findings, arachnoid cyst was observed in 4 (11.4%) patients, basal ganglion intensity in 8 (20.2%), encephalomalacia in 8 (20.2%), frontogliotic area in 30 (80.7%, mostly frequently), cortical atrophy in 6 (17.1%), megacisterna in 5 (14.3%), and centrum semiovale hyperintensity in 8 (20.2%). Findings of hypoxic ischemic brain injury were determined in 32 (91.4%) patients. Conclusion: As CP is a group of diseases for which diagnosis may be difficult but early diagnosis can be beneficial, children at high-risk from birth must be closely monitored, the families must be warned, and if necessary early neuroimaging tests should be requested. In the long-term follow-up process, in respect of both rehabilitation and the followup of comorbidities such as epilepsy, the treatment and follow-up of patients must be applied by a multidisciplinary team to be able to reach maximum physical capacity.