This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related articles  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Critical Care/ Intensive Care Medicine  • Alert me on articles by topic

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: In their study of the effect of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) on postoperative hypoxemia,¹ Dr Squadrone and colleagues found a higher rate of surgical site infection or anastomotic leak in the control group. Reduction in atelectasis by positive end-expiratory pressure, which has been shown to decrease bacterial growth in the lung² and thereby may decrease bacteremia in the presence of established pulmonary infection,³ does not necessarily explain this finding. Another possibility is that with less atelectasis there is a reduction in systemic inflammation and less circulating immunomodulatory mediators. It would therefore be interesting to know whether the authors measured group differences between serum cytokines or trends in protein level or total body water that might correlate with tissue integrity and healing. If the level of inflammation or mediator release were similar between groups, the difference in the rates of anastomotic leaks may have been due to . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Spiros G. Frangos, MD, MPH
spiros.frangos@med.nyu.edu
Section of Surgical Critical Care
New York University School of Medicine

David R. Schwartz, MD
Critical Care Medicine
New York University Hospital
New York

RELATED ARTICLES

Continuous Positive Airway Pressure and Postoperative Hypoxemia—Reply
V. Marco Ranieri and Vincenzo Squadrone
JAMA. 2005;293(22):2714-2715.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Continuous Positive Airway Pressure for Treatment of Postoperative Hypoxemia: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Vincenzo Squadrone, Massimiliano Coha, Elisabetta Cerutti, Maria Maddalena Schellino, Piera Biolino, Paolo Occella, Giuseppe Belloni, Giuseppe Vilianis, Gilberto Fiore, Franco Cavallo, V. Marco Ranieri, and for the Piedmont Intensive Care Units Network
JAMA. 2005;293(5):589-595.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT