| Abstract Number: 36 |
| Title: HOW RELIABLE IS INTRA-ABDOMINAL PRESSURE MEASUREMENT IN INTENSIVE CARE? |
| Authors: K. Peters, F, Jones *, M. Sugrue*, A. Bauman^ , M,Parr , Z Balogh* |
| Abstract: Introduction We know that girth estimates and clinical examination are unreliable measures of intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) (1-3). This study assessed the performance of IAP measurement and the reproducibility of IAP values obtained by ICU nurses.
Methods A prospective clinical study. was undertaken in a university hospital on patients undergoing intra-abdominal surgery and admitted to the ICU who required routine IAP measurements. Two consecutive measurements of IAP using a modified Kron technique were performed by 50 nurses and were compared with two consecutive measurements made by the chief investigator.
Performance of IAP measurement was made by assessing nurses’ ability to follow the protocol of ten procedural steps for accurate measurement of IAP.
Results Results showed good adherence to the procedural steps and a strong correlation in agreement for both intra and inter observer measurements of IAP. Nurses’ and chief investigator’s measures were r = 0.917 (P<0.001) and 0.988 (P<0.001) respectively. Kappa agreements between the nurses’ and the chief investigators’ first, second and average measures were 0.58 (.37-.74), .62 (.40-.76) and 0.61 (.41-.76) respectively with 95%CI.
Conclusion In this university hospital IAP is measured according to recognised procedural steps and IAP measurements by ICU nurses are reliable and reproducible with little intra and inter observer variability.
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