ABSTRACT

Opinions of the doctorson the increase in intra-abdominal pressure (IAP), abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS) and the treatment were obtained by survey studies performed in different countries. In our country there is no study about this subject conducted on intensive care specialists. The aim of this study was to gather information about IAP measurement applications of intensive care specialists in our country with the help of a web-based questionnaire.

After the approval of ethics committee, web-based questionnaires consisting of 10 questions about IAP measurement application were distributed to intensive care specialists in our country. The questionnaire was created utilizing surveys conducted in different countries. The answers of the participantswho were volunteer to provide feedbacks were analyzed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program.

Of the 1215 e-mails sent to specialists, 144 (11.85%) were responded. 129 of the participants (89.6%) stated that they had information about ACS. 86 (59.7%) participants stated that they have performed IAP measurement before. Intravesical measurement was the most commonly used method (94.2%) in the measurement of the IAP. IAP measurement was performed most commonly in patients who developed ACS and “when it is clinically indicated”. The largest proportion of the participants who did not measure IAP (43.1%) did not perform the measurement due to not knowing how to measure IAP.

Although ACS is known commonly among physicians working in the intensive care unit; similar to previous studies, the differences in the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment approaches is noteworthy.

Keywords: Intensive care unit, intra-abdominal pressure, abdominal compartment syndrome, survey