Resuscitation

Resuscitation is the process of correcting physiological disorders (such as lack of breathing or heartbeat) in an acutely ill patient. It is an important part of intensive care medicine, anesthesiology, trauma surgery and emergency medicine. Well-known examples are cardiopulmonary resuscitation and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Adequate resuscitation and end-organ perfusion is best indicated by urine output of 0.5-1 mL/kg/h. For the average adult male weighing ~70 kg this would mean a urine output of 35 mL/h (70 x 0.5 = 35 mL/h). Heart rate, mental status, and capillary refill may be affected by underlying disease processes and are thus less reliable markers for adequate resuscitation.

For subsequent treatment, resuscitations have to be properly recorded. One example is trauma care. Even though there is a strong expansion of electronic health records, within the healthcare industry, resuscitation documentation is still often handwritten, increasing the risk of incomplete documentation. Novel options like tablet-based solutions help to digitalize this process. For improved documentation quality, future solutions have to be accepted by clinicians and well-integrated into their workflows.