Crit Care Resusc
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Characteristics and outcomes of patients reviewed by intensive care unit liaison nurses in Australia: a prospective multicentre study.
Intensive care unit liaison nurse (ICU LN) services are one strategy to manage deteriorating hospital patients. Studies on the characteristics and outcomes of patients reviewed by ICU LNs have been from single centres and surveys. ⋯ Most ICU LN reviews occur after ICU discharge or in association with an RRT review. The inhospital mortality of ICU LN-reviewed patients is high (about 10%). ICU LNs effectively screen patients and often participate in end-of-life care planning.
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Multicenter Study
Physiological status during emergency department care: relationship with inhospital death after clinical deterioration.
To examine the relationship between patient physiological status in the emergency department (ED) and inhospital mortality after rapid response team (RRT) or cardiac arrest team (CAT) activations within 72 hours of emergency admission to medical or surgical wards. ⋯ In patients who needed an RRT or CAT activation within the first 72 hours of emergency admission to medical or surgical wards, there was a strong association between physiological derangement during ED care and inhospital death.
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Venous blood gas (VBG) analysis is suggested as an alternative to arterial blood gas (ABG) analysis. In haemodynamically stable patients, there is clinically acceptable arteriovenous (AV) agreement for pH and bicarbonate (HCO3-) concentration, but in haemodynamically unstable patients, evidence is conflicting. We aimed to evaluate the level of AV agreement for the values of pH, PCO2, base excess, HCO3- and lactate between ABGs and VBGs in critically ill patients with varying degrees of hypotension. ⋯ In critically ill patients with varying degrees of hypotension in the ICU, there is clinically acceptable AV agreement for the values of pH, HCO3-, base excess and lactate, an agreement that does not deteriorate significantly with falling blood pressure.