Safety in intrahospital transportation: evaluation of respiratory and hemodynamic parameters. A prospective cohort study

• Autor(a) principal: Mazza,Bruno Franco
• Data de Publicação: 2008
• Outros Autores: Amaral,José Luiz Gomes do, Rosseti,Heloisa, Carvalho,Rosana Borges, Senna,Ana Paula Resque, Guimarães,Hélio Penna, Machado,Flavia Ribeiro
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: São Paulo medical journal (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-31802008000600005
• topic: Patient transfer; Transportation of patients; Respiration, artificial; Positive-pressure respiration; Pulmonary ventilation; Intermittent positive-pressure ventilation

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: Intrahospital transportation of mechanically ventilated patients is a high-risk situation. We aimed to determine whether transfers could be safely performed by using a transportation routine. DESIGN AND SETTING: Prospective cohort study with "before and after" evaluation. METHODS: Mechanically ventilated patients who needed transportation were included. Hemodynamic and respiratory parameters were measured before and after transportation. Statistical analysis consisted of variance analysis and paired Student's t test. Results were considered significant if P < 0.05. RESULTS: We studied 37 transfers of 26 patients (12 female) of mean age 46.6 ± 15.7. Patients with pulmonary diseases, positive end expiratory pressure > 5, FiO2 > 0.4 and vasoactive drug use comprised 42.4%, 24.3%, 21.6% and 33.0% of cases, respectively. Mean duration of transportation was 43.4 ± 18.9 minutes. Complications occurred in 32.4%. There was a significant increase in CO2 (before transportation, 29.6 ± 7.3 and after transportation, 34.9 ± 7.0; P = 0.000); a trend towards improved PO2/FiO2 ratio (before transportation, 318.0 ± 137.0 and after transportation, 356.8 ± 119.9; P = 0.053); increased heart rate (before transportation, 80.9 ± 18.7 and after transportation, 85.5 ± 17.6; P = 0.08); and no significant change in mean arterial blood pressure (P = 0.93). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that intrahospital transportation can be safely performed. Our low incidence of complications was possibly related to both the presence of a multidisciplinary transportation team and proper equipment.