Articles: intensive-care-units.
-
Comput Methods Programs Biomed · Oct 1989
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialComputerized management of patient care in a complex, controlled clinical trial in the intensive care unit.
Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is often not responsive to conventional supportive therapy and the mortality rate may exceed 90%. A new form of supportive care, extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal (ECCO2R), has shown a dramatic increase in survival (48%). A controlled clinical trial of the new ECCO2R therapy versus conventional continuous positive pressure ventilation (CPPV) is being initiated. ⋯ Using a blackboard control architecture, the protocols have been implemented on an existing hospital information system and will direct patient care and help manage the controlled clinical trial. Therapeutic instructions are automatically generated by the computer from data input by physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, and the laboratory. Preliminary results show that the computerized protocol system can direct therapy for acutely ill patients.
-
Southern medical journal · Sep 1989
Tracheostomy in the intensive care unit: a safe alternative to the operating room.
Severely injured patients frequently require endotracheal intubation, either by the nasotracheal (NT) or orotracheal (OT) route, for airway control and/or ventilatory support. If intubation is required for more than two to four weeks, an elective tracheostomy is usually indicated. Transferring these patients to the operating room is difficult, and it impairs their continued monitoring and care. ⋯ There were no complications specifically attributed to the performance of tracheostomy in the ICU, though one patient each suffered tracheitis, tracheostomy tube dislodgement, and tracheomalacia. Tracheostomy in the ICU avoids the risks of moving these patients with all their monitoring and infusion lines, and saves operating room time and charges. Trained surgical personnel using adequate instruments and lighting can safely perform a tracheostomy in the intensive care unit.
-
Intensive care nursing · Sep 1989
ReviewParents of critically ill children have their needs too! A literature review.
Children are very special people in the lives of their parents. Much of the life of the parents is concerned with meeting the needs of the children, giving them nurturance, love, protection and support. A child's parents will be the dominant factor in providing that environment in which the child develops and comes to understand his/her self, role in the family unit and relationship with the world at large. ⋯ This unique influence and understanding implicit in the parental role has important implications for health care workers, for in their care of hospitalised children the involvement and co-operation of the parents is essential if adverse reactions to hospitalisation are to be minimised. However the parents will only be able to assist the health care team to meet the needs of the child if their own needs are also acknowledged and satisfied. With this in mind this review of the literature will focus upon the needs of parents whose children have been admitted into a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)