Articles: intensive-care-units.
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Critical care medicine · Dec 1992
Comparative Study Clinical TrialEvaluation of the consistency of Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE II) scoring in a surgical intensive care unit.
To determine the applicability of the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE II) scoring system in a Swiss ICU, and to evaluate its utility in evaluating data from 2 yrs of consecutive admissions to show that the predictability of outcome is similar to that predictability observed by Knaus et al. in 1985 (in 5,815 patients), with the provision that large numbers of patients are studied. ⋯ The APACHE II score, because of its consistency over time and the stability of the mortality rates, can be used in our surgical ICU without modification. The calculated risk of death gives no additional information.
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In this paper an account is given of a research on how parents experience and react to their child's treatment in the Intensive Care Unit of the Academic Medical Centre of Amsterdam. The purpose of this research was to gain insight into how this period influenced parents and to make an inventory of the problems parents were being confronted with. ⋯ One of the reasons why this kind of study has been done into a descriptive/exploring style is because such research is practically new in the Netherlands. The main results will be described and some recommendations will be made how to improve the quality of the guidance of the parents on an ICU.
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Neuromuscular blocking agents are frequently used in the Intensive Care Unit to facilitate tracheal intubation and the application of continuous paralysis. This review will focus on various conditions of the critically ill patient such as multi-organ dysfunction, acid-base and electrolyte imbalance, prolonged immobility, multiple drug interactions and specific disease/injury processes that may affect the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic behaviour of muscle relaxants. As such, due to the complex nature of the critically ill patients, the effects of neuromuscular blocking agents are unpredictable. Therefore, guidelines regarding their administration and the methodology and requirement for continuous bedside monitoring of neuromuscular function will be presented.
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Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Nov 1992
Therapeutic intervention scoring system (TISS)--a method for measuring workload and calculating costs in the ICU.
The Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System (TISS) is an easily applicable method for measurement of workload in the intensive care unit (ICU). In the present study a modified TISS-scoring (mTISS) was performed daily during 1988-1989 on 2693 patients in a general ICU. Of these, 900 could be classified as 'true' ICU-patients (ICU-stay > or = 24 h or TISS > or = 20 points), whereas the rest were postoperative. ⋯ The cost of each mTISS-point was calculated. In conclusion, the present study showed that mTISS is a valuable tool when evaluating resource utilization in the ICU. Together with the proposed workload-index and calculation of costs, mTISS could be used for ICU management control.