Adverse events (AEs) are defined as "unintended physical injury resulting from or contributed to by medical care that requires additional monitoring, treatment or hospitalization or that results in death (Griffin & Resar, 2009)." Diverse studies from various countries reported that AEs developed in 12% of hospitalized patients (Panagioti et al., 2019) while the severe and unstable patients often seen in the intensive care unit (ICU) experienced more AEs than those in other general wards (Andrews et al., 1997). Up to 20%-25% of ICU patients experience an adverse event (AE), with 45.3-80.5 events per 1000 patient-days, and, within these events, 13% were lethal or life-threatening (Rothschild et al., 2005;Sauro et al., 2020).Numerous international studies show that AEs increase ICU stay length by 8.9 days and the length of a hospital stay by 6.8 days (Ahmed et al., 2015).The incidence of AEs varies according to national background and medical culture. For example, anaesthesia-related mortality is higher in developing countries than in developed countries (Bainbridge et al., 2012). Also, patient safety culture scores have been found to be negatively correlated with AEs incidence (Han et al., 2020;

OBJECTIVES: Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) is used in the rehabilitation of patients with critical illness. However, it is unclear whether NMES prevents ICU-acquired weakness (ICU-AW). For this purpose, we conducted an updated systematic review and meta-analysis. DATA SOURCES: We searched the MEDLINE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Igaku Chuo Zasshi databases from April 2019 to November 2022 to identify new randomized controlled trials to the previous meta-analysis. STUDY SELECTION: We systematically searched the literature for all randomized controlled trials on the effect of NMES in patients with critical illness. DATA EXTRACTION: Two authors independently selected the studies and extracted data. They calculated the pooled effect estimates associated with the occurrence of ICU-AW and adverse events as primary outcomes and muscle mass change, muscle strength, length of ICU stay, mortality, and quality of life as secondary outcomes. The certainty of evidence was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation approach. DATA SYNTHESIS: Overall, eight studies were added to the previous 10 studies. Evidence suggests that the use of NMES reduces the occurrence of ICU-AW (six trials; risk ratio [RR], 0.48; 95% CI, 0.32–0.72); however, NMES may have little to no effect on pricking sensation in patients (eight trials; RR, 6.87; 95% CI, 0.84–56.50). NMES is likely to reduce the change in muscle mass (four trials; mean difference, –10.01; 95% CI, –15.54 to –4.48) and may increase muscle strength (six trials; standardized mean difference, 0.43; 95% CI, 0.19–0.68). Further, NMES may result in little to no difference in the length of ICU stay, and the evidence is uncertain about the effect on mortality and quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: This updated meta-analysis revealed that the use of NMES may result in a lower occurrence of ICU-AW in patients with critical illness, but its use may have little to no effect on pricking sensation in patients.

Dyspnea is a common, distressing symptom of cardiopulmonary and neuromuscular diseases and is defined as “a subjective experience of breathing discomfort that consists of qualitatively distinct sensations that vary in intensity.” However, Japanese intensive care units (ICUs) do not routinely screen for dyspnea, as no validated Japanese version of the Respiratory Distress Observation Scale (RDOS) is available. Therefore, we aimed to translate the English version of this questionnaire into Japanese and assess its validity and reliability. To translate the RDOS, we conducted a prospective observational study in a 12-bed ICU of a universal hospital that included 42 healthcare professionals, 10 expert panels, and 128 ventilated patients. The English version was translated into Japanese, and several cross-sectional web-based questionnaires were administered to the healthcare professionals. After completing the translation process, a validity and reliability evaluation was performed in the ventilated patients. Inter-rater reliability was evaluated using Cohen’s weighted kappa coefficient. Criterion validity was ascertained based on the correlation between RDOS and the dyspnea visual analog scale. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to evaluate the ability of the RDOS to identify patients with self-reported dyspnea. The average content validity index at the scale level was 0.95. Data from the 128 patients were collected and analyzed. Cohen’s weighted kappa coefficient and the correlation coefficient between the two scales were 0.76 and 0.443 (95% confidence intervals 0.70–0.82 and 0.23–0.62), respectively. For predicting self-reported dyspnea, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.81 (95% confidence interval 0.67–0.97). The optimal cutoff used was 1, with a sensitivity and specificity of 0.89 and 0.61, respectively. Our findings indicated that the Japanese version of the RDOS is acceptable for face validity, understandability, criterion validity, and inter-rater reliability in lightly sedated mechanically ventilated patients, indicating its clinical utility.

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