Physical restraints practice in adult intensive care units: a review

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To describe the available evidence on indications, complications, care and alternative strategies in the use of physical restraint in adult patients in Intensive Care Units. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An integrative review conducted in the Cochrane, PubMed, Scopus, LILACS, Nursing Database and the eLibrary portal. The search was performed on the queries: “physical restriction”, “fixation devices in intensive care”, “patient safety”, “fixation of the patient”. RESULTS: The final selection was of 93 articles, from which the indications, complications, care and alternative strategies were extracted. CONCLUSIONS: The most common practices regarding physical restraints in Russia and foreign countries were described, and the need for the elaboration and implementation of protocols on intervention to support decision — making was observed.