BackgroundAssessment and treatment of the acutely ill patient have improved by introducing systematic assessment and accelerated protocols for specific patient groups. Triage systems are widely used, but few studies have investigated the ability of the triage systems in predicting outcome in the unselected acute population. The aim of this study was to quantify the association between the main component of the Hillerød Acute Process Triage (HAPT) system and the outcome measures; Admission to Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and in-hospital mortality, and to identify the vital signs, scored and categorized at admission, that are most strongly associated with the outcome measures.MethodsThe HAPT system is a minor modification of the Swedish Adaptive Process Triage (ADAPT) and ranks patients into five level colour-coded triage categories. Each patient is assigned a triage category for the two main descriptors; vital signs, Tvitals, and presenting complaint, Tcomplaint. The more urgent of the two determines the final triage category, Tfinal. We retrieved 6279 unique adult patients admitted through the Emergency Department (ED) from the Acute Admission Database. We performed regression analysis to evaluate the association between the covariates and the outcome measures.ResultsThe covariates, Tvitals, Tcomplaint and Tfinal were all significantly associated with ICU admission and in-hospital mortality, the odds increasing with the urgency of the triage category. The vital signs best predicting in-hospital mortality were saturation of peripheral oxygen (SpO2), respiratory rate (RR), systolic blood pressure (BP) and Glasgow Coma Score (GCS). Not only the type, but also the number of abnormal vital signs, were predictive for adverse outcome. The presenting complaints associated with the highest in-hospital mortality were 'dyspnoea' (11.5%) and 'altered level of consciousness' (10.6%). More than half of the patients had a Tcomplaint more urgent than Tvitals, the opposite was true in just 6% of the patients.ConclusionThe HAPT system is valid in terms of predicting in-hospital mortality and ICU admission in the adult acute population. Abnormal vital signs are strongly associated with adverse outcome, while including the presenting complaint in the triage model may result in over-triage.

BackgroundManagement and care of the acutely ill patient has improved over the last years due to introduction of systematic assessment and accelerated treatment protocols. We have, however, sparse knowledge of the association between patient status at admission to hospital and patient outcome. A likely explanation is the difficulty in retrieving all relevant information from one database. The objective of this article was 1) to describe the formation and design of the 'Acute Admission Database', and 2) to characterize the cohort included.MethodsAll adult patients triaged at the Emergency Department at Hillerød Hospital and admitted either to the observationary unit or to a general ward in-hospital were prospectively included during a period of 22 weeks. The triage system used was a Danish adaptation of the Swedish triage system, ADAPT. Data from 3 different data sources was merged using a unique identifier, the Central Personal Registry number; 1) Data from patient admission; time and date, vital signs, presenting complaint and triage category, 2) Blood sample results taken at admission, including a venous acid-base status, and 3) Outcome measures, e.g. length of stay, admission to Intensive Care Unit, and mortality within 7 and 28 days after admission.ResultsIn primary triage, patients were categorized as red (4.4%), orange (25.2%), yellow (38.7%) and green (31.7%). Abnormal vital signs were present at admission in 25% of the patients, most often temperature (10.5%), saturation of peripheral oxygen (9.2%), Glasgow Coma Score (6.6%) and respiratory rate (4.8%). A venous acid-base status was obtained in 43% of all patients. The majority (78%) had a pH within the normal range (7.35-7.45), 15% had acidosis (pH < 7.35) and 7% had alkalosis (pH > 7.45). Median length of stay was 2 days (range 1-123). The proportion of patients admitted to Intensive Care Unit was 1.6% (95% CI 1.2-2.0), 1.8% (95% CI 1.5-2.2) died within 7 days, and 4.2% (95% CI 3.7-4.7) died within 28 days after admission.ConclusionsDespite challenges of data registration, we succeeded in creating a database of adequate size and data quality. Future studies will focus on the association between patient status at admission and patient outcome, e.g. admission to Intensive Care Unit or in-hospital mortality.

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We found elevated admission peripheral venous lactate to be independently associated with in-hospital mortality in the acutely ill patient admitted to the emergency department. Patients with a lactate>4 mmol/l at hospital admission should be considered triaged to the most urgent triage category.

Background Nerve block of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve (LFCN) is a predominantly sensory block. It reduces pain following total hip arthroplasty (THA), but the non-responder rate is high. We hypothesized, that an increased volume of ropivacaine, would result in greater coverage of incisions used for THA. Methods We conducted a randomized, blinded trial in 20 healthy volunteers. Participants were randomized to receive bilateral LFCN-blocks with 8 mL ropivacaine 0.75% on the left side and 16 mL ropivacaine 0.75% on the right side, or vice versa. Allocation was blinded to both participants and outcome assessors. Before nerve block performance, incision lines for posterior and lateral THA approaches were depicted with invisible ultraviolet-paint, thereby securing sufficient blinding during outcome assessment. The blocked area was mapped using temperature and mechanical discrimination tests. Quadriceps muscle strength was monitored. Primary outcome was coverage of the posterior incision line assessed by temperature discrimination test. Results We found no difference in coverage of the posterior or lateral incision lines when comparing LFCN-blocks with 8 mL versus 16 mL of ropivacaine. The blocked area was significantly larger in the 16 mL group, assessed by both temperature discrimination test ( p = 0.012) and mechanical discrimination test ( p = 0.034). We observed no difference between groups regarding quadriceps muscle strength ( p = 1.0). Conclusions A LFCN-block with increased volume of ropivacaine from 8 mL to 16 mL did not result in a greater coverage of posterior or lateral incision lines used for THA, but in a larger blocked sensory area. Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT03138668 . Registered 3rd of May 2017.

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Background We hypothesized that both perineural and systemic dexamethasone as adjuncts to bupivacaine increase the duration of an ulnar nerve block compared with bupivacaine alone, and that systemic dexamethasone is non-inferior to perineural dexamethasone. Methods We performed bilateral ulnar nerve blocks with 3 ml bupivacaine 5 mg/ml in 16 healthy volunteers on two trial days. According to randomization, subjects received adjunct treatment with 1 ml dexamethasone 4 mg/ml + 1 ml of saline (perineural condition) in one arm and 2 ml saline in the other arm (systemic condition, through absorption and redistribution of the contralaterally administered perineural dexamethasone) on one trial day; and 2 ml of saline in one arm (placebo condition) and 2 ml of lidocaine in the other arm (lidocaine condition) on the other trial day. The primary outcome was the duration of the sensory nerve block assessed by temperature discrimination. Results Mean sensory block duration was 706 ± 94 minutes for the perineural condition, 677 ± 112 minutes for the systemic condition, and 640 ± 121 minutes for the placebo condition. The duration of the sensory nerve block was greater with perineural dexamethasone versus placebo (mean difference (MD) 66 minutes (95% CI 23 to 108). Block duration was similar between systemic dexamethasone and placebo (MD 36 minutes; 95% CI -30 to 103). Conclusion Perineural dexamethasone as an adjunct to bupivacaine in healthy volunteers resulted in a greater duration of an ulnar nerve block when compared with placebo. Systemic dexamethasone resulted in a similar duration as placebo.

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