Articles: intensive-care-units.
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Anasth Intensivther Notfallmed · Oct 1988
[Alarms of medical-technical equipment in the surgical intensive care unit. A prospective study].
To test the need for a graded system of alarms on ICU we examined this aspect of present management by recording the number of devices and alarm-releasing facilities, the interpretation of alarms and type of response of the nursing staff. The data were recorded on multiphase basis at the operative ICU of a university hospital. ⋯ In more than 50 per cent the first reaction of the staff was alarm-related. We conclude that the number of alarm signals should be reduced and unique signals used for each group of medical devices.
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Peripheral intravenous cannula use in a neonatal intensive care unit was surveyed prospectively to ascertain the rate of complications and the factors influencing the life span of an intravenous cannula. During a three-month period in which 199 intravenous cannulas were inserted in 69 patients, only two significant infiltrations (1%) were observed in more than 5000 hours of intravenous therapy. ⋯ Pancuronium was associated with a significant prolongation of cannula life span--from 30 to 50 hours. We conclude that in this setting, the rate of clinically significant complications from intravenous cannula therapy is low.