HCAR1

This was a multicenter randomized controlled study of 98 severe Traumatic Brain Injury patients with tracheostomy. Patients enrolled were divided randomly into the observation group with Intermittent Oro-esophageal Tube Feeding (n=50) or the control group with Nasogastric tube feeding (n=48) for enteral nutrition support, respectively. Nutritional status, complications, decannulation of tracheostomy tubes and level of consciousness on day 1 and day 28 were recorded and compared.

Pulmonary hypertension Group 2 (PH 2) associated with left-sided heart disease is relatively common, is associated with a poor prognosis, and unfortunately there are no proven medical treatments beyond attempts at correcting the left sided heart disease. Many PH 2 patients have evidence of active constriction of blood vessels from increased nerve traffic. Use of agents or procedures which produce a reversible chemical blockage of this nerve traffic have not been systematically tested in PH 2. The investigators will test whether acute interruption of sympathetic nervous system tone, which local anesthetic block of the stellate ganglion in the neck, will improve PH2, and also test whether the high blood pressure drug reserpine, which blocks sympathetic nerve activity, will do so during a one month trial period.

The study is deigned to determine if refractory hypertension is attributable to heightened sympathetic tone by quantifying the antihypertensive benefit of reserpine, a sympatholytic agent, in patients failing other classes of antihypertensive agents.