Accuracy of height and weight estimation by critical care staff

Abstract

Patient's height and weight measurements are used regularly within the critical care setting whether for calculation of drug doses, nutritional intake, ventilator settings or calibration of cardiac output monitoring [1]. In sedated patients these parameters are often obtained via estimation by critical care staff. Errors in these estimations have the potential to cause harm either from errors in drug calculations [2], inappropriate ventilatory settings or underfeeding or overfeeding.