Intensive care medicine
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Intensive care medicine · Jan 2001
Clinical TrialPattern of spontaneous breathing: potential marker for weaning outcome. Spontaneous breathing pattern and weaning from mechanical ventilation.
To quantitatively assess the spontaneous breathing (SB) pattern, during minimal ventilatory support, of patients who pass or fail weaning trials from mechanical ventilation. ⋯ The spontaneous breathing pattern during minimal mechanical ventilatory support is more chaotic in patients who failed extubation trials compared to patients who passed extubation trials. Thus, we speculate that characterizing the SB pattern during minimal ventilatory support might be a useful tool in differentiating between extubation success and failure.
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To document the changes in patterns of airway accidents in intubated patients. ⋯ We noted a change of the pattern of airway accidents. We noted an increasing trend in the incidence of blocked tracheal tubes, associated with an increased duration of heat and moisture exchanger-filters use. We also noted that the incidence of tracheostomy tube accidents was similar to that of ETT accidents in the current study, unlike the earlier study where tracheostomy tube accidents were more frequent than ETT accidents. This was due to the elimination of tracheostomy tube displacements during the later study period. We associated this with the use of adjustable tracheostomy length tubes.
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Intensive care medicine · Jan 2001
Base excess and lactate as prognostic indicators for patients admitted to intensive care.
To examine whether values of arterial base excess or lactate taken on admission to a general intensive care unit indicate prognosis, and whether this can be used as a screening tool for future intensive care admissions. ⋯ Both base excess and lactate, or the combination of the two, can be used to predict outcome in patients admitted to the intensive care unit. These variables could be utilized to identify patients who have a high risk for mortality and thus who should be admitted to the intensive care unit.
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Intensive care medicine · Jan 2001
Impact of an electronic information system on physician workflow and data collection in the intensive care unit.
To test the hypotheses that: (1) integrating information processing tasks using an electronic clinical information system (ECIS) decreases time to complete these tasks by hand; and (2) structured data entry encourages generation of more detailed records and capture of specific data elements even when entry is voluntary. ⋯ Electronic and handwritten documentation consumed equal amounts of time. Structured entry, compared to handwriting, may encourage recording of specific or otherwise unincorporated data elements resulting in a more detailed record. This suggests that user interfaces and decision support components may influence both the types and complexity of clinical data recorded by caregivers.
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Intensive care medicine · Jan 2001
The value of capillary whole blood lactate for blood transfusion requirements in anaemia of prematurity.
To evaluate the usefulness of blood lactate as an indication for blood transfusion in anaemia of prematurity by means of a study protocol which considers the site of blood sampling and the repeatability of lactate measurements. ⋯ Capillary whole blood lactate measurements in newborn babies agree excellently with arterial values. Lactate measurements add little information to the decision whether to transfuse or not, considering the variability of this parameter in stable premature infants and the lack of correlation with other possible clinical indicators of compromised oxygen delivery.