Resuscitation Room Survey

Abstract

A survey of 100 seriously ill patients admitted to a Resuscitation Room is described.

The survey was conducted over a comparatively short space of time, but it has nonetheless illustrated several facts.

The remarkable frequency of violence and poisoning among patients requiring resuscitation is demonstrated. This combined group constitutes over 80 per cent of all the patients. Also notable is the frequency of head injury, and in particular the high percentage (75%) of patients who received their head injuries in road traffic accidents.

The Neurosurgical Unit is shown to receive far more patients from the resuscitation room than any other unit, and this fact might be usefully employed in planning the proximity of such units to casualty departments of the future.

The use of a specially equipped resuscitation room is described. It is clearly desirable to have such an area, but with the relatively small number of resuscitation patients it is not economical to restrict the very expensive X-ray facilities to these patients alone.