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S Kriemerman

Publications and source records attributed to S Kriemerman.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

A new intensive care worksheet.

This article presents a new manual daily worksheet for recording data on a patient's status in an Intensive Care Unit. It permits a rapid view of the whole picture of the patient's condition at a certain hour since the system of recording is based on the time an event happened. Only one single page is used for each day. Space is provided for essential data, ventilatory parameters, laboratory results, fluid balance, drug therapy and special treatments. Attended staff, invited consultants as well as nurses add written notes which complete the picture provided by numbers. It does not replace the computerized interpretation, statistical analysis or storage of data, but it comes as an easy-to-use daily tool at the bedside.

Forms and Records Control↗

Cannulation of big arteries in critically ill patients.

A retrospective evaluation of 350 axillary and femoral artery cannulations in ICU patients revealed a 6.3-day mean duration of catheterization. Minor incidents such as hematoma (3.7%), catheter malfunction (5.1%), and local inflammation (2.5%) were noticed. The catheter was removed in 25 patients in whom it was suspected of causing sepsis. Six septic patients had the same organism in catheter and arterial blood cultures (with a negative venous blood culture), probably denoting an infected, catheter-linked thrombus. In 241 cases the catheter was removed at the end of the monitoring period. In only 21 of these cases did an organism grow in the catheter culture, but in 18 of these cases, the same organism was found in previous blood, sputum, and/or urine cultures. Thus, in only six patients (of 266 survivors) could arterial cannulation be held responsible for generalized sepsis. However, because no bacteriologic study was performed on catheters removed after the patient's death, this number could have been higher. Percutaneous axillary and femoral artery cannulation is highly recommended for extended monitoring because of its low incidence of minor complications, and no evident danger of tissue ischemia.

Adolescent↗