A prospective study on the precision of height data from electronic medical records in tidal volume calculation for lung-protective ventilation

Abstract

Lung-protective ventilation is now the norm for all patients, regardless of the presence of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), owing to the mortality associated with higher tidal volumes (TV). Clinicians calculate TV using recorded height from medical records and predicted body weight (PBW); however, the accuracy remains uncertain. Our study aimed to validate accurate TV settings for lung-protective ventilation by examining the correlation between the charted height and bedside measurements. In a single-center study, we compared PBW-based TV calculated from recorded height to PBW-based TV from measured height and identified factors causing height overestimation during charting. Our team measured patient height within 24 hours of admission using metal tape. TV calculated from recorded height (6-8 mL/kg PBW) was significantly larger (391.55±65.98 to 522.07±87.97) than measured height-based TV (162.62±12.62 to 470.28±89.64) (P