Awareness With Paralysis Among Critically Ill Emergency Department Patients: A Prospective Cohort Study*

The objective was to assess the proportion of ED patients experiencing AWP and investigate modifiable variables associated with its occurrence. DESIGN: An a priori planned secondary analysis of a multicenter, prospective, before-and-after clinical trial. SETTING: The ED of three academic medical centers. PATIENTS: Mechanically ventilated adult patients that received neuromuscular blockers. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: All data related to sedation and analgesia were collected. AWP was the primary outcome, assessed with the modified Brice questionnaire, and was independently adjudicated by three expert reviewers. Perceived threat, in the causal pathway for PTSD, was the secondary outcome. A total of 388 patients were studied. The proportion of patients experiencing AWP was 3.4% (n = 13), the majority of whom received rocuronium (n = 12/13; 92.3%). Among patients who received rocuronium, 5.5% (n = 12/230) experienced AWP, compared with 0.6% (n = 1/158) among patients who did not receive rocuronium in the ED (odds ratio, 8.64; 95% CI, 1.11–67.15). Patients experiencing AWP had a higher mean (sd) threat perception scale score, compared with patients without AWP (15.6 [5.8] vs 7.7 [6.0]; p
Source: Critical Care Medicine - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Feature Articles Source Type: research