716 Does Bloody Aspirate Reflect the State of Upper Gastrointestinal Mucosa in a Critically ill Newborn?

In December 2014, Malaysia had suffered nationwide floods after unprecedented monsoon rains overwhelmed several parts of the country. The East Coast areas of Malaysia were especially badly affected, specifically for the state of Kelantan, whereby a total of 170,000 victims were evacuated to the evacuation centres. This was the worst flood in the last 40 years and has been referred to by the locals as ‘Bah Kuning’. As a tertiary centre for the state of Kelantan with a total number of hospital beds of 937, HRPZ II was also badly compromised during this time. The electricity supply to the main hospital building was shut-down during this period and the hospital had managed to maintain its operations hUP_(ÛT_e power from a generator which had faced the risk of being shut down if the water levels had increased further. These issues might have caused a worse impact viaa possible loss of electrical and oxygen supply and non-functional life support systems. In relation to this flood disaster, the Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Unit of HRPZ II would like to share the experiences of handling ventilated and critically ill-patients for evacuation during the massive floods in 2014 from the ICU of Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II to “an open stage with no facilities”. During this time, we had a total of 19 patients in our 21-bedded Intensive Care Unit. The challenge was the need to evacuate all the critically ill patients and to set-up a new ICU in a safer place immediately at the time.International Journal of Human and Health Sciences Vol. 02 No. 04 October’18. Page : 224-227

Download Full-text

Gastric intramucosal pH: a noninvasive method for the indirect measurement of tissue oxygenation

American Journal of Critical Care ◽

10.4037/ajcc1992.1.2.53 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

pp. 53-60 ◽

Cited By ~ 36

Author(s):

CH Clark ◽

G Gutierrez

Keyword(s):

Critically Ill ◽

Tissue Oxygenation ◽

Indirect Measurement ◽

Arterial Oxygen ◽

Critically Ill Patient ◽

Gastrointestinal Mucosa ◽

Arterial Oxygen Content ◽

Arterial Blood ◽

Systemic Oxygen ◽

Specific Tissue

BACKGROUND: Monitoring the adequacy of tissue oxygenation is an important goal in the care of the critically ill patient. Global alterations in tissue oxygenation are inferred from changes in systemic oxygen transport (defined as the product of cardiac output and arterial oxygen content) and total oxygen consumption. These parameters, however, cannot measure the level of oxygenation of specific tissue beds, in particular those that are first affected by hypoxia, such as the gastrointestinal tract and the kidneys. DISCUSSION: Gastrointestinal tonometry is a new method for measuring the partial pressure of carbon dioxide of the gastrointestinal mucosa. This information can be used in conjunction with the arterial blood bicarbonate to calculate the pH of the mucosa. Mucosal acidosis correlates well with the onset of anaerobic metabolism in response to hypoxia or sepsis. This review discusses the basic principles of tonometry, the results of experimental and clinical studies, and the practical aspects related to the implementation and use of tonometers in patients in the critical care unit. CONCLUSION: Gastrointestinal tonometry is a relatively noninvasive device that appears capable of measuring metabolic changes produced by hypoxia. Because of the sensitive nature of the gastrointestinal mucosa, these changes often occur well in advance of other, more common, indices of hypoxia. The use of the tonometer may become a routine procedure in the overall monitoring of critically ill patients.

Download Full-text