Crit Care Resusc
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Comparative Study
Bedside electronic capture of clinical observations and automated clinical alerts to improve compliance with an Early Warning Score protocol.
Failure to comply with clinical protocols and failure of communication to ensure delivery of the most appropriate timely clinical responses to patients whose conditions are acutely deteriorating have been shown to be significant causative factors associated with inhospital adverse events. ⋯ Electronic recording of patient observations linked to a computer system that calculates patient risk and then issues automatic graded alerts can improve clinical attendance to unstable general medical ward patients.
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To determine the extent to which physical function is restored 6 months after intensive care unit admission, and whether this is associated with short or long ICU length of stay (LOS). ⋯ Our study showed that patients who survive treatment for life-threatening illness in an Australian ICU for more than 48 hours and are subsequently able to communicate are likely to return to their premorbid functional level (as defined by FIM score) within 6 months.
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Comparative Study
A pilot study of the epidemiology and associations of pulse pressure variation in cardiac surgery patients.
Pulse pressure variation (PPV) is an accepted measure of intravascular filling. It can now be estimated automatically. However, there is limited knowledge of the epidemiology and associations of such estimates in cardiac surgery patients. ⋯ In a tertiary ICU, among patients who had recently had cardiac surgery, automated PPV values in the likely FR range were present in over a third of measurements. Correlations with other haemodynamic and ventilation values were logical and expected.