Objective

To investigate the accuracy of visual blood loss estimation from small animals among veterinary staff and final-year veterinary students, and the development and utility of a pictorial guide to improve estimation, in a veterinary hospital.

Study design

Online anonymous voluntary survey.

Methods

A two-part online survey was circulated to voluntary participants at the University Veterinary Teaching Hospital Sydney, The University of Sydney, including students, nurses, interns, residents, general practitioners and specialists. The survey consisted of visual and brief descriptive depictions of blood loss scenarios involving small animals, principally including images of common surgical items and receptacles containing a bloodlike substance. Each participant estimated the blood volume (in millilitres) for each scenario two times, initially [Pre-Guide (PGD)] and then with the aid of a pictorial guide [With-Guide (WGD)]. The pictorial guide used similar images labelled with corresponding volumes. Data were analysed for normality with the Shapiro–Wilk test, corrected to absolute error and compared for statistical significance using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test or the Kruskal–Wallis test as appropriate (p < 0.05).

Results

A total of 59 participants provided 288 responses. The raw median PGD error was –16 mL (range –105 to 443 mL), indicating a tendency towards underestimation of the actual volume. The WGD median error was 18 mL (range –91 to 191 mL), indicating a tendency towards overestimation when using a pictorial guide (p < 0.0001). Data corrected to absolute error showed a PGD median error of 34 mL (range 0–443 mL) and WGD median error of 23 mL (range 0–191 mL; p < 0.0001). There were differences between the participant roles in the PGD phase but not when using the pictorial guide.

Conclusions

and clinical relevance Participants generally underestimated surgical blood loss, with a wide variation, when visually estimating scenarios involving small animals. A pictorial guide improved estimation by reducing the absolute median error and narrowing the range.

中文翻译：

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开发和评估图形指南，以提高视觉估计小动物失血的准确性。

目的

为了调查兽医人员和最后一年的兽医学生中小动物的视觉失血估计的准确性，以及在兽医医院中开发和使用可提高估计效果的图片指南的实用性。

学习规划

在线匿名自愿调查。

方法

一项分为两部分的在线调查向悉尼大学悉尼大学兽医教学医院的自愿参与者分发，其中包括学生，护士，实习生，居民，全科医生和专家。该调查包括涉及小动物的失血情况的视觉和简短描述，主要包括常见手术用品和装有血样物质的容器的图像。每个参与者两次估计每种情况下的血量（以毫升为单位），首先是[Pre-Guide（PGD）]，然后是借助图示指南[With-Guide（WGD）]。该图片指南使用了带有相应卷标的相似图像。使用Shapiro-Wilk检验分析数据的正态性，p＜0.05）。

结果

共有59位参与者提供了288个回复。PGD​​的原始中值误差为–16 mL（范围为–105至443 mL），表明倾向于低估实际体积。WGD的中位数误差为18 mL（范围为–91至191 mL），表明使用图形指南时有过高估计的趋势（p <0.0001）。校正为绝对误差的数据显示PGD中值误差为34 mL（范围为0–443 mL）和WGD中值误差为23 mL（范围为0–191 mL；p <0.0001）。PGD​​阶段的参与者角色之间存在差异，但使用图片指南时则没有差异。

结论

与临床相关性当从视觉上估计涉及小动物的情况时，参与者通常会低估外科手术的失血量，差异很大。图解指南通过减少绝对中值误差并缩小范围来改善估计。