[The transfer of critically ill patients]

Critically ill patients admitted to an intensive care unit or an emergency ward, frequently need to be transported to different areas within the hospital in order to perform diagnostic procedures. An increased mortality and morbidity risk has been found associated with the transportation of these patients. In order to investigate the effect of the intra-hospitalary transport of our patients on their clinical status this study was conducted. We studied 12 patients admitted to the intensive care unit or the emergency ward; all were on mechanical-assisted ventilation and had been stable for at least six hours prior to transportation. Blood gas and hemodynamic measurements were obtained before, immediately after and thirty minutes after transportation. The most significant changes seen immediately in our patients were an increase in PaCO2 (30.8 +/- 7.35 vs 35.6 +/- 7.49, p less than 0.02) and a decrease in pH (7.36 +/- 0.08 vs 7.31 +/- 0.05, p less than 0.02). Patients with higher pH values prior to their transportation had the most significant change towards acidosis (r = -0.79). All changes reversed thirty minutes after reinstallation of the mechanical ventilation. There was no change in the hemodynamic measurements. We conclude that the transportation of critically ill patients within a hospital is fairly safe if patients are previously stabilized.