Articles: intensive-care-units.
-
Southern medical journal · Oct 1987
Central venous cannulation done by house officers in the intensive care unit: a prospective study.
Central venous cannulation (CVC) is a procedure frequently performed by house staff in the intensive care units of teaching hospitals. In the medical ICUs of our two hospitals, CVC was successfully done by house officers in 172 cases requiring 231 attempts (one operator at one insertion site), for a success rate of 74%. There were 14 complications (6.1%), five requiring intervention, but none fatal. ⋯ CVC during resuscitation was frequently unsuccessful (41%) and/or complicated (13.6%). Although success rates were comparable, complications were more common among experienced house officers than among interns, perhaps reflecting patient selection. There was a trend toward fewer and/or less severe complications during the course of the month and of the study.
-
Errors in estimation of burn size are commonplace in community hospital emergency rooms. In 24 of 132 transfers to a burn center the extent of injury was overestimated at the transferring emergency room by 100% or more. This incorrect burn size estimation seems related to reliance on guesswork or use of the Rule of Nines. The incidence of error is greater in smaller burns.