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Biomedical subjects

A Tatman

Publications and source records attributed to A Tatman.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

Development of a modified paediatric coma scale in intensive care clinical practice.

James' adaptation of the Glasgow coma scale (JGCS) was designed for young children. Intubated patients are not allocated a verbal score, however, so important changes in a patient's conscious level may be missed. A grimace score was therefore developed and assessed for use in intubated children. Two observers made a JGCS observation within 15 minutes of each other. One observer was the patient's nurse and the other a trained investigator. Interobserver reliability was determined between the first and second observation for each component of the scale. Reliability was measured using kappa and weighted kappa statistics. Seventy three children had 104 sets of observations. Interobserver reliability was moderate to good for all components, with the grimace score better than the verbal score. It is concluded that the grimace score is more reliable than the verbal score and may be useful in intubated patients in whom the verbal score cannot be used.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Premature failure of battery-powered syringe pumps.

Failure of battery-powered equipment during the interhospital transfer of patients is potentially life threatening. The time to failure of 60 fully-charged identical syringe pumps (20 from each batch purchased in 1992, 1994 and 1995) was measured. Older pumps were associated with less predictable charge capacity, with 40% of the 1992 pumps failing within 60 min. The premature failure of these pumps is most likely due to poor battery care. It is unsafe to assume that a fully-charged, battery-powered pump will continue to function throughout a long transfer. The routine carriage of spare pumps or a backup power supply is recommended.

Electric Power Supplies↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Intraoperative anaphylaxis during neurosurgery.

Intra-operative anaphylaxis is of particular concern in neurosurgery. Not only is there an increased risk of major anaphylaxis, but the frequent placement of patients in the prone or sitting position may make resuscitation difficult. We describe two cases of per-operative anaphylaxis during neurosurgery and the techniques used in the successful management and investigation of these patients.

Adolescent↗