[Mechanical irrigation and selective decontamination in critically ill patients]

The authors debugged and launched into routine operation an automated monitoring system using computer techniques. Working off-line, they monitored microbiological, immunologic and biochemical parameters of mechanical irrigation of the mouth and selective decontamination of the gastro-intestinal tract. They ran and classified the data concerned into two index-sequence subsets defined on a set of patients treated with artificial pulmonary ventilation and patients with reduced defenses, and/or corticoid-dependent patients with myasthenia gravis. At present, they study basic sets, representative enough to permit the statistically significant examination of all the parameters under study as well as their exact interpretation with regard to the efficiency of the therapeutical strategy chosen.