Articles: critical-care.
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This is a case study of a patient 32 weeks pregnant who presented with multiple endocrine neoplasia type IIa, with severe pheochromocytoma complicated by adult respiratory distress syndrome. The patient's blood pressure was labile, with systolic variations from 50 to 230 mm Hg and tachycardia ranging from 150 to 180 beats per minute. ⋯ Hemodynamic measures are compared with the clinical presentation. The importance of fluid replacement is discussed.
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Critically ill patients are transported within and between hospitals on a regular basis; thus, transport of the critically ill is a component of most intensivists-practice. The motivation for these transports lies in obtaining diagnostic or therapeutic services not available at the bedside (intrahospital transport) or not available in the sending institution (interhospital transport). Deterioration in respiratory, cardiovascular, and other physiological systems is a potential complication of any patient transport. Using appropriate equipment and personnel and planning for each transport can minimize these complications and ensure optimal benefit to the patient.
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to characterize and to assess in terms of severity the surgical and trauma patients admitted to a medical intensive care unit (ICU). ⋯ these are seriously ill patients, who are frequently referred to the ICU in late stages of clinical evolution. We propose they should be closely followed, from the earliest possible stage, by medical-surgical teams, in order to benefit from a multidisciplinary approach.
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Intensive Crit Care Nurs · Sep 1992
The most important needs of parents of critically ill children: parents' perceptions.
Research studies have identified the needs of relatives when they have had an adult family member in the intensive care unit. However little similar work has been done within the paediatric setting. Therefore the aim of this study was to examine what parents considered to be their most important needs, when they have a child ill in the intensive care environment (PICU). ⋯ The parents were required to indicate how important each need was to them during the time of the child's stay in the PICU. Results obtained indicate that parents have a strong need for information and relief of anxieties that they may have about their child's condition. A conclusion reached in this study is that if the critical care staff can go some way to assess and meet the needs of parents of critically ill children, then these parents may be more able to become effective partners in care, which may have therapeutic effects upon the child's health recovery.