Canadian journal of anaesthesia = Journal canadien d'anesthésie
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Observational Study
Non-essential blood tests in the intensive care unit: a prospective observational study.
Non-essential blood testing in the acute care setting can be a prominent source of morbidity, patient discomfort, increased workload for the healthcare provider, and wasteful spending. The magnitude of such non-essential blood testing has not been well described. We aimed to measure the extent of unnecessary blood testing in a 33-bed intensive care unit (ICU) at a tertiary-care teaching hospital in Ontario, Canada. ⋯ Attending physicians deemed a substantial proportion of the blood tests processed in a tertiary care ICU setting as unnecessary. Furthermore, the non-essential tests incurred substantial additional cost. Further work is required to gain a better understanding of the underlying factors contributing to these wasteful practices.
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Letter Case Reports
Life-threatening lingual artery hemorrhage after cardiac surgery.