Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về y học được đăng trên tạp chí y học Critical Care giúp cho các bạn có thêm kiến thức về ngành y học đề tài: Do not be alarmed, the patient is monitored. | Available online http content 7 5 349 Commentary Do not be alarmed the patient is monitored RJ Cusack1 and JF Coutts2 1 Research Fellow in Intensive Care St Georges Hospital London UK 2Consultant Cardiologist Guy s St Thomas NHS Trust St Thomas Hospital London UK Correspondence RJ Cusack rj_cusack@ Published online 28 August 2003 Critical Care 2003 7 349-350 DOI cc2368 This article is online at http content 7 5 349 2003 BioMed Central Ltd Print ISSN 1364-8535 Online ISSN 1466-609X Abstract Many patients are believed to be at risk of dysrhythmias and are felt to require cardiac monitoring. These patients may not be deemed ill enough to occupy a high dependency or critical care bed and are monitored on general wards. Monitoring policies vary widely not only between institutions but also between individual medical staff. These variations occur due to differing availability of resources and due to the lack of consensus regarding the risk for an individual patient. There is no clear evidence that monitoring patients outside high dependency areas is of benefit inappropriate use of monitoring may actually increase patient risk. Keywords electrocardiogram ECG dysrhythmias monitoring risk Presentation to the emergency department after an overdose of drugs with serious cardiac side effects is common. The American Association of Poison Control Centers reports antidepressants as second only to analgesics as a cause of death from overdose. In the present issue of Critical Care Buckley and colleagues evaluate electrocardiogram ECG abnormalities that may be helpful in risk-stratifying patients after tricyclic antidepressant and thioridazine overdose 1 . This is with particular reference to which patients should have continuous ECG monitoring. Despite the availability of continuous cardiac monitoring for nearly 50 years there are remarkably few publications examining the benefits and limitations of continuous ECG monitoring in patients .
