TY - JOUR T1 - Comparison of usual and alternative methods to measure height in mechanically ventilated patients: potential impact on protective ventilation JF - Respiratory Care DO - 10.4187/respcare.02732 SP - respcare.02732 AU - Azadeh Bojmehrani AU - Maude Bergeron-Duchesne AU - Carmelle Bouchard AU - Serge Simard AU - Pierre-Alexandre Bouchard AU - Abel Vanderschuren AU - Erwan L'her AU - François Lellouche Y1 - 2013/11/19 UR - http://rc.rcjournal.com/content/early/2013/11/19/respcare.02732.abstract N2 - Background: Protective ventilation implementation requires the calculation of predicted body weight, determined by a formula based on gender and patient height. Consequently, height inaccuracy may be a limiting factor to correctly set tidal volumes. The objective of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of different methods in measuring heights in mechanically ventilated patients. Methods: Before cardiac surgery, actual height was measured with a height gauge while subjects were standing upright (gold standard) and also estimated with alternative methods based on lower leg and forearm measurements. After cardiac surgery, upon ICU admission, patients' heights were visually estimated by a clinician and then measured with a measuring tape while patient was supine undergoing mechanical ventilation. Results: 100 subjects (75 men, 25 women) were prospectively included. Mean predicted body weight was 61.0 ± 9.6 kg and mean actual weight was 30.3% higher. In comparison with the reference method, visually estimated height and the tape measuring method were less accurate than both lower leg and forearm measurements. Errors above 10% in calculating the predicted body weight were present in 25 and 40 subjects when the tape measure or visual estimation of height was used in the formula, respectively. With lower leg and forearm measurements, 15 subjects had errors above 10% (P<0.001). Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that significant variability exists between the different methods of measuring height in bedridden patients on mechanical ventilation. Alternative methods based on lower leg and forearm measurements are potentially interesting solutions to facilitate the accurate application of protective ventilation. ER -