Implementation and evaluation of a nurse-centered computerized potassium regulation protocol in the intensive care unit - a before and after analysis

Table 2 Comparison of patient groups before and after the implementation of computerized potassium regulation with GRIP-II.

	Before GRIP-II	After GRIP-II	P-value
N	775	1435
Age (mean ± SD)	62 ± 16	61 ± 15	ns
Male sex (%)	67	65	ns
Reason of admission (%)
Abdominal surgery	13.5	12.3
Cardiac	16.8	18.1
Medical	7.4	6.8
Miscellaneous	4.8	4.3
Neurological	1.3	2.9
Oncologic	2.3	2.1
Cardiothoracic surgery	40.8	43.2
Trauma	7.5	5.5
Vascular surgery	5.7	4.9
APACHE II (mean ± SD) *	15 ± 7	14 ± 7	ns
Admission creatinine level, μmol/L (mean ± SD)	91 ± 56	98 ± 78	0.035
Acute kidney injury during ICU admission (%)^†	10.2	11.8	ns
Renal replacement therapy (%)⁺	5.6	4.1	ns
Point of Care potassium/glucose measurements (patient-day)^-1	5.3	5.9	<0.001
Length of stay (days) at the ICU
Cardiothoracic ICU	1.0 (0.9-3.1)	1.0 (0.9-2.6)	ns
Surgical ICU	3.5 (1.3-8.8)	3.6 (1.1-9.7)	ns
Length of hospital stay (days)
Cardiothoracic ICU	12 (8-22)	11 (8-19)	ns
Surgical ICU	19 (12-36)	19 (11-41)	ns
Hospital mortality (%)
Cardiothoracic ICU	8	7	ns
Surgical ICU	13	15	ns

*Only for surgical patients
† Acute kidney injury defined as a two-fold increase in creatinine levels.
+ Renal replacement therapy during the first 5 days of ICU-admission
Characteristics of the two patient groups. Numbers are expressed as percentages or median (IQR) unless otherwise specified. Abbreviations used in table: GRIP-II, Glucose and potassium Regulation in Intensive care Patients; SD, Standard Deviation; ns, not significant; APACHE II, Acute Physiology And Chronic Health Evaluation II score; ICU, Intensive Care Unit.

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