Hypotension (low blood pressure)

Patients admitted to the ICU can have episodes of low blood pressure (hypotension).  In itself, hypotension can have many causes such as: blood loss from trauma or surgery, septic shock from infection, heart failure from a myocardial infarction or pulmonary embolim.  If any of these causes of hypotension were not immediately addressed, it would constitute deviation from the standard of care.  Less obvious reasons for a patient in the ICU to become acutely hypotensive can be related to fluid, sedation and pain management.  For instance, many patients admitted to the ICU are in need of mechanical ventilation.  One of the major concerns is the comfort level of the patient while on the ventilator.  In order to calm the patient while in this “unnatural” state of breathing, medications are used to sedate and manage the patient’s pain.  Although useful, these medications also have many side effects, one of the most common being hypotension.  If it is not recognized in a timely manner that a patient is acutely hypotensive due to a medication, then negligence may be involved.