Questions Under Study / Principles: Colonoscopies are complex procedures that depend greatly on the patient's cooperation and on the correct judgment of a tolerable amount of discomfort by the endoscopy team, even in sedated patients. Little is known regarding the accuracy of the patient comfort level assessments made by medical staff.
Methods: We prospectively evaluated the degree of agreement between the assessments made by the endoscopists and endoscopy nurses and the assessments made by patients regarding their comfort level during the procedure. A total of 222 patients scheduled for routine colonoscopies assessed their preprocedural anxiety and the tolerability of the procedure. Endoscopists and nurses assessed the difficulty of the examination and the patient's level of discomfort. Assessments were performed using a 100-mm VAS.
Results: Overall, patients rated the procedure as tolerable. For 12% (27/222) of the patients, the examination was less tolerable (VAS >50 mm). The patients' judgment of tolerability was not related to the initial level of anxiety (r = 0.15). The scores of the endoscopists and nurses were better correlated with each other (r = 0.58) than with the patients' self-assessments (r = 0.37 and 0.35, respectively). Both endoscopists and nurses tended to overestimate the patients' discomfort. However, in 9% (19/222) of cases, the level of patient discomfort was considerably underestimated by at least one member of the team.
Conclusion: Our study shows that the estimation of a patient's discomfort during a colonoscopy is difficult and that the comfort level may not be accurately determined in a considerable number of patients, including sedated patients.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.4414/smw.2012.13726 | DOI Listing |
Innovation (Camb)
September 2024
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Southern University and Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China.
The human skin maintains a comfortable and healthy somatosensory state by sensing different aspects of the thermal environment, including temperature value, heat source, energy level, and duration. However, state-of-the-art thermosensors only measure basic temperature values, not the full range of the thermosensation function of human skin. Here, we propose a heat source recognition () sensor of poly(butyl acrylate)-lithium bis(n-fluoroalkylsulfonyl)imide (PBA-Li:FSI; = 1, 3, 5), which enables response to temperature, pressure, and proximity stimulus signals based on the relaxation behavior of the ionic gel and distinguished between different types of heat sources (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFiScience
January 2025
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA.
Household electrification is an important pillar of decarbonization in the US and requires the rapid adoption of electric heat pumps. Household energy models that project adoption rates do not represent these decisions well. To what extent are they limited by fundamental knowledge gaps, or is there scope to incorporate insights from the social science literature? We review the energy modeling and social science literature on heating equipment adoption to synthesize our understanding of adoption decisions, to identify best practices on representing decision-making behavior among energy models, and to suggest model improvements.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this paper, we propose simultaneous and sequential hybrid brain-computer interfaces (hBCIs) that incorporate electroencephalography (EEG) and electromyography (EMG) signals to classify drivers' hard braking, soft braking, and normal driving intentions to better assist driving for the first time. The simultaneous hBCIs adopt a feature-level fusion strategy (hBCI-FL) and classifier-level fusion strategies (hBCIs-CL). The sequential hBCIs include the hBCI-SE1, where EEG signals are prioritized to detect hard braking, and hBCI-SE2, where EMG signals are prioritized to detect hard braking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Cyst Fibros
January 2025
The Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; Child Health Research Centre, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Electronic address:
Background: People with cystic fibrosis (CF) are recommended to wear face-masks when in healthcare settings. We previously demonstrated that face-masks significantly reduce the release of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) aerosols during coughing in adults with CF.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPulmonology
December 2025
Alma Mater Studiorum, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences (DIMEC), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Nasal high flow (NHF) therapy is an established form of non invasive respiratory support used in acute and chronic care. Recently, a new high flow nasal cannula with asymmetric prongs was approved for clinical use. The clinical benefits of the new cannula have not yet been defined and no evidence are available on the use of asymmetric NHF support in patient with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
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