Neuromuscular monitoring by intensive care nurses: comparison of acceleromyography and tactile assessment.
rct · Level II
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 9623442.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
We have compared tactile assessment of the train-of-four (TOF) count and TOF ratio by nursing staff, with measurements made by a new acceleromyographic monitor, the TOF-Watch. We assessed neuromuscular block in 30 sedated intensive care patients receiving a continuous infusion of atracurium. Five nurses made a tactile assessment of neuromuscular block in each patient within a 5-min period. Each assessment was paired with a blinded TOF-Watch measurement. The nurses were accurate in assessing twitch count in 55% of measurements and they tended to overestimate the degree of block using tactile assessment of TOF ratio.
Medical subject headings
- Critical Care
- Neuromuscular Blockade
- Nursing Care