Caboolture Hospital Emergency Department Research Coordinator Stacey Watts and Staff Specialist Dr Mark Scott, ICU Staff Specialist Dr Mahesh Ramanan, Metro North Health Executive Director Emergency Medicine and Caboolture Hospital Emergency Staff Specialist Dr Sean Clarke with Research Coordinator Kelsey Pateman.
Congratulations to Caboolture Hospital Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Staff Specialist Dr Mahesh Ramanan, who was recently published in the Intensive Care Medicine journal.
Intensive Care Medicine is ranked as the number two journal internationally in the field of critical care and intensive care medicine.
Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a life-threatening complication of diabetes that results in about 3000 patients getting admitted to an Australian ICU each year.
Patients with DKA are regularly admitted to hospital with some requiring ICU care. Most of the increase in DKA admissions are happening in rural, regional and outer metropolitan hospitals, such as Caboolture.
Dr Ramanan’s article outlined how the Caboolture Hospital ICU designed and led the SCOPE-DKA cluster-randomised, controlled trial comparing Plasmalyte-148 to Saline, which is the most-commonly used fluid for DKA patients needing ICU admission in peripheral and regional Queensland hospitals.
This was the first Randomised Control Trial led by the Caboolture Hospital ICU. It showed that resolution of DKA occurs faster with Plasmalyte-148 compared to the commonly used Saline without any increase in adverse effects.
ICU Staff Specialist Dr Mahesh Ramanan with ICU Registered Nurse Melissa Petty and Director Dr Arif Shaikh who were involved in the Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) research.
Based on these findings, the team is now planning a larger trial to determine whether Plasmalyte-148 also results in shorter ICU admission, faster hospital discharge and health economic benefits.
Congratulations to Caboolture Hospital staff who were involved in the study with ICU Staff Specialist Dr Ramanan:
- Director ICU Dr Arif Shaikh
- Executive Director Emergency Medicine and Emergency Staff Specialist Dr Sean Clarke
- ED Staff Specialist Dr Mark Scott
- Research Coordinator Dr Thuy Frakking
- Research Assistant Kylie Annetts
- Research Coordinator Stacey Watts
- ICU Registered Nurse Melissa Petty