Journal of clinical monitoring and computing
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J Clin Monit Comput · Apr 2016
Assessment of the time-dependent need for stay in a high dependency unit (HDU) after major surgery by using data from an anesthesia information management system.
Admittance to a high dependency unit (HDU) is expensive. Patients who receive surgical treatment with 'low anterior resection of the rectum' (LAR) or 'abdominoperineal resection of the rectum' (APR) at our hospital are routinely treated in an HDU the first 16-24 h of the postoperative (PO) period. The aim of this study was to describe the extent of HDU-specific interventions given. ⋯ Another one-third of the patients had a need for HDU-specific therapies for more than ten consecutive hours, primarily an infusion of nor-epinephrine. Most patients treated with LAR or APR was in need of an HDU-specific intervention during the first 6 h of the PO-period, with a marked decline after this time period. The applied methodology, using an AIMS, demonstrates that there is great variability in individual patients' postoperative needs after major surgery, and that these needs are dynamic in their nature.
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Respiratory rate has been shown to be an important predictor of cardiac arrest, respiratory adverse events and intensive care unit admission and has been designated a vital sign. However it is often inadequately monitored in hospitals. We test the hypothesis that RespiraSense, a piezoelectric-based novel respiratory rate (RR) monitor which measures the differential motion of the chest and abdomen during respiratory effort, is not inferior to commonly used methods of respiratory rate measurement. ⋯ The 95 % confidence interval for the difference in average RR between RespiraSense and ECG was calculated to be [-3.9, 3.1]. The 95 % confidence interval for the difference in average RR between RespiraSense and nurses' evaluation was [-5.5, 4.3]. We demonstrate a clinically relevant agreement between RR monitored by the RespiraSense device with both ECG-derived and manually observed RR in 48 post-surgical patients in a PACU environment.
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J Clin Monit Comput · Apr 2016
Detection of intraneural needle-placement with multiple frequency bioimpedance monitoring: a novel method.
Electrical impedance measurements have been used to detect intraneural needle placement, but there is still a lack of precision with this method. The purpose of the study was to develop a method for the discrimination of nerve tissue from other tissue types based on multiple frequency impedance measurements. Impedance measurements with 25 different frequencies between 1.26 and 398 kHz were obtained in eight pigs while placing the tip of a stimulation needle within the sciatic nerve and in other tissues. ⋯ The area under the curve in a receiver operating characteristic was consecutively increased for the Modulus (78 %), Phase angle (86 %), Delta of the phase angle (94 %), and the Compound variable C (97 %), indicating highest specificity and sensitivity for C. An algorithm based on C was implemented in a real-time feasibility test and used in an additional test animal to demonstrate our new method. Discrimination between nerve tissue and other tissue types was improved by combining several impedance variables at multiple measurement frequencies.
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J Clin Monit Comput · Feb 2016
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyInfluences of different vasopressors on stroke volume variation and pulse pressure variation.
Pulse pressure variation (PPV) and stroke volume variation (SVV) during mechanical ventilation have been shown to be effective parameters to predict preload responsiveness. Although induced hypertension decreases PPV and SVV, the influences of different vasopressors on PPV and SVV are unknown. 94 patients undergoing elective otologic surgery were randomly divided into three groups: Group P (patients were given phenylephrine), Group D (patients were given dopamine), Group E (patients were given ephedrine). ⋯ Dopamine decreased the PPV and SVV more significantly than ephedrine, but less significantly than phenylephrine. The influences of phenylephrine, dopamine and ephedrine on SVV and PPV are different due to their different pharmacological mechanisms.