• Anna-Liisa Sutt, Karen Hay, Toni Kinneally, Stephanie Fisquet, and John F Fraser.
• Critical Care Research Group, Adult Intensive Care Services, The Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane, Australia; Faculty of Medical and Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; Barts Health NHS Trust, London, United Kingdom. Electronic address: annaliisasp@gmail.com.
• Aust Crit Care. 2020 Sep 1; 33 (5): 407-411.

BackgroundSedation and anaesthesia are used universally to facilitate mechanical ventilation - with larger cumulative doses being used in those with prolonged ventilation. Transitioning from an endotracheal to a tracheostomy tube enables the depth of sedation to be reduced. Early use of speaking valves with tracheostomised patients has become routine in some intensive care units (ICU). The return of verbal communication has been observed to improve ease of patient care and increase patient and family engagement, with a perceived reduction in patient agitation.ObjectivesTo investigate the potential impact of speaking valve (SV) use on requirements of sedatives, analgesics and antipsychotics in ICU patients with a tracheostomy.MethodsA retrospective data audit was undertaken for all tracheostomised patients in a cardio-respiratory ICU from 2011 to 2014. Use of sedative, analgesic and antipsychotic drugs was captured for endotracheal tube, tracheostomy and SV periods, including patient demographics, disease specifics and severity. Stratified Cox regression analysis was performed to determine the effects of SV on drug dosage.ResultsOf 257 patients, 144 (56%) received an SV. Use of an SV was associated with reduced risk of being in the upper quartile of daily dosage of analgesics (HR: 0.6; 95% CI: 0.5-0.8; p < 0.001). In the final adjusted multivariable model, analgesic dose was additionally associated with age, and attendance to operating theatre during ICU. Sedative dose was associated with age, gender and SOFA score. Antipsychotic dose was associated with gender (less likely in females: HR 0.6, 95% CI: 0.4-0.8), age and APACHE score.ConclusionsThere was significantly less analgesic used in patients with an SV compared to those without. However, SV use in patients with tracheostomy was not found to be associated with reduced dose of sedatives or antipsychotics, despite the clinical impression. Future prospective studies are needed to more adequately investigate the association between drugs and patients' ability to verbally participate in their care.Crown Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

16 keywords...

hide…