Intensive care medicine
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Intensive care medicine · Dec 2000
Comparative StudyAccuracy of totally implanted ports, tunnelled, single- and multiple-lumen central venous catheters for measurement of central venous pressure.
To verify the accuracy of totally implanted ports, tunnelled central venous catheters (CVC), widely used in cancer patients, and multi-lumen catheters, used in intensive care units (ICUs), in measuring central venous pressure (CVP), using right atrial pressure (RAP) measured in a Swan-Ganz catheter as the reference standard. ⋯ CVP can be accurately measured in totally implanted ports, tunnelled or non-tunnelled single-lumen and multiple-lumen catheters. When the difference exceeds the limit of agreement, the discrepancy between the two measurements has limited significance in most cases.
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Intensive care medicine · Dec 2000
Comparative StudyValidation of severity scoring systems SAPS II and APACHE II in a single-center population.
To validate two severity scoring systems, the Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS II) and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE II), in a single-center ICU population. ⋯ This study validates both SAPS II and APACHE II scores in an ICU population comprised mainly of surgical patients. The type of ICU admission and the location in the hospital before ICU admission influence the predictive ability of the models.
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Intensive care medicine · Dec 2000
ICU nurse-to-patient ratio is associated with complications and resource use after esophagectomy.
To determine if having a night-time nurse-to-patient ratio (NNPR) of one nurse caring for one or two patients (> 1:2) versus one nurse caring for three or more patients (< 1:2) in the intensive care unit (ICU) is associated with clinical and economic outcomes following esophageal resection. ⋯ A nurse caring for more than two ICU patients at night increases the risk of several postoperative pulmonary and infectious complications and was associated with increased resource use in patients undergoing esophageal resection.
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Intensive care medicine · Dec 2000
Comparative StudyA comparison of severity of illness scoring systems for elderly patients with severe pneumonia.
To evaluate the predictive ability of three severity of illness scoring systems in elderly patients with severe pneumonia requiring mechanical ventilation compared to a younger age group. ⋯ Although the three severity of illness scoring systems (APACHE II, MPM II and SAPS II) demonstrated average discrimination when applied to estimate hospital mortality in the elderly patients with severe pneumonia, MPM II had the closest fit to our database. Alternative modeling approaches might be needed to customize the model coefficients to the elderly population for more accurate probabilities or to develop specialized models targeted to the designed population.