Acute respiratory failure is a life-threatening complication in cancer patients. During neutropenia, patients are at high risk for bacterial pneumonia or invasive fungal infections, when neutropenia is prolonged. A high proportion of patients in whom neutropenia had been complicated by pneumonia will present with substantial respiratory deterioration during neutropenia recovery. Patients with f...

Retinoic acid syndrome is a novel complication of therapy with all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APML). Primarily the syndrome consists of fever and respiratory distress. Additional features include weight gain, oedema over lower extremities, pleural or pericardial effusion and hypotension. We report electrophysiological changes in a 16 year old patie...

STUDY DESIGN Retrospective analysis of a Medicare database (2005 to 2012). OBJECTIVE To study postoperative complication rates following thoracolumbar fusion for traumatic thoracolumbar fracture in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) compared with patients without AS. METHODS The PearlDiver database (2005 to 2012) was queried to examine postoperative complication rates in patients wit...

Flexible fibreoptic bronchoscopy is a safe procedure with a major complication rate of ,1% in most published studies [1]. In one retrospective study of .4,000 bronchoscopies, major complications (respiratory failure, pneumothorax and pulmonary haemorrhage of .50 mLs) occurred in 0.5% of procedures and minor complications (laryngospasm, vomiting, bronchospasm, vasovagal syncope and epistaxis) in...

We report an uncommon and potentially dangerous complication of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) applied during spontaneous respiration. A patient with multiple fractures and recurrernt atelectasis developed pneumocephalus on the seventh day of respiratory therapy with CPAP via a face mask. A fracture of the base of the skull, not recognized despite neurologic and radiologic evaluatio...