Research Information System
Anestezi Dergisi, vol.33, no.2, pp.125-133, 2025 (Scopus, TRDizin)
Objective: High-risk patients who undergo surgery are transported to the intensive care unit (ICU), and critically ill patients in the ICU are transported to the radiology unit or operating rooms for diagnosis and treatment. Complications have been reported at a rate of 40-60% in intra-hospital transports (IHT) of critically ill patients. This study aimed to evaluate adult critically ill patient transports accompanied by anesthesiologists. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, during the 6-month data collection period it was tried to reach all patients over the age of 18 who were transported within the hospital accompanied by anesthesiologists. Results: The number of patients whose transport was evaluated is 526. Patients’ ages ranged from 18 to 93, and the mean age was 58.8 ± 16.1. Cardiovascular complications were observed in 54% of the patients and respiratory complications were observed in 35.0%. Transport time longer than 11 minutes were more risky in terms of hypotension (p=0.015). While it was observed that hypotension developed more in transports performed by more experienced residents (p=0.04); hypertension developed more in intubated patients and in transports performed by less experienced residents (p=0.004, p=0.029). Equipment related problems occured in 21.5% of transports. Equipment problems were higher in transports carried out under night shifts (p=0.032) and in transports lasting 11 minutes or longer (p=0.009). It was observed that 42% of the transports were carried out without any problems, 40% with minor problems, 17% with major problems, and 1% transports could not be carried out because of major problems. Conclusion: Cardiovascular, respiratory, and equipment-related complications appear to be at high frequency. Due to the high rate of cardiovascular complications, appropriate sedoanalgesia protocols should be developed for transport, the use of checklists should be expanded to reduce equipment problems, and training should be provided for the team that will perform the transport.