Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 27, 2026

An Educational Video Demonstration of How to Prone a Critically Ill Intubated Patient
Published on: November 30, 2022
High frequency of potential entrapment gaps in beds in an acute hospital
Jennifer Haugh1, Tomás O Flatharta1, Tomás P Griffin1
1Department of Geriatric Medicine, Galway University Hospitals, Galway, Ireland.
Objective:
dimensional guidelines for bedrails have been developed to minimise the risk of patient entrapment within the bed. We examined whether bedrails in a large Irish teaching hospital complied with these standards.
Design And Setting:
survey of 60 accessible beds in six hospital wards.
Methods:
a specialised cone and cylinder tool that mimics the size and weight of a small adult neck and head was used to determine gaps in the four zones most associated with entrapment.
Results:
the number of failures for each zone was 15 beds for zone 1 (any space between the perimeters of the rail); 42 beds for zone 2 (the space under the rail); 41 beds for zone 3 (the space between the inside surface of the bedrail and the mattress) and 13 beds for zone 4 (the space between the mattress and rail at the end of the rail). Failures were more common with hydraulic adjusted than with electric profiling beds. Mattresses that were the wrong size (usually too narrow) or too soft and bedrails that were loose or were poorly maintained accounted for many failures.
Conclusion:
many beds used in our hospital did not comply with dimensional standards to minimise entrapment risks. This emphasises the need for careful selection of patients for whom bedrails are to be used as well as the need for monitoring and maintenance of bed systems.
More Related Videos
05:56Monitoring Lung Function with Electrical Impedance Tomography in the Intensive Care Unit
Published on: September 6, 2024
06:22Surfactant Depletion Combined with Injurious Ventilation Results in a Reproducible Model of the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome ARDS
Published on: April 7, 2021
Related Concept Videos
Mechanical Ventilation II: Invasive Ventilation
Negative-Pressure Ventilators
Negative-pressure ventilators create a vacuum around the chest or body to draw air into the lungs, simulating breathing. This method does not require an...
Mechanical Ventilation I: Indication and Settings
Mechanical Ventilation III: Noninvasive Ventilation
Noninvasive Positive-Pressure Ventilation...
Ventilatory Modes
There are three ventilatory modes: full support, partial support, and spontaneous. These are described below.
Full Support Modes
Full support modes include controlled mechanical ventilation, continuous mandatory...
Acute Respiratory Failure-V
Ensure that patients are monitored continuously for their response to therapy, including changes in...
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation II: ACLS Airway Management