Infusion System Architecture Impacts the Ability of Intensive Care Nurses to Maintain Hemodynamic Stability in a Living Swine Simulator.

Background: The authors have previously shown that drug infusion systems with large common volumes exhibit long delays in reaching steady-state drug delivery and pharmacodynamic effects compared with smaller common-volume systems. The authors hypothesized that such delays can impede the pharmacologic restoration of hemodynamic stability.

Methods: The authors created a living swine simulator of hemodynamic instability in which occlusion balloons in the aorta and inferior vena cava (IVC) were used to manipulate blood pressure.