What Are the Most Common Ventilator Alarms in the ICU? An Integrative Review

Background: Considering the vital role of the mechanical ventilator in providing respiratory support to patients, it is important and necessary to pay attention to and identify the common alarms of this device and to sensitize the medical team to these warnings. Methods: This integrative review study was conducted in order to evaluate both printed and non-printed studies. Searching was done from 20/09/2010 to 20/09/2023 based on Prisma 2009 guidelines in Scopus, PubMed, Embase, and ProQuest databases. The keywords included "pulmonary ventilator," "mechanical ventilators," "ventilator," "respirators," "alarm," "clinical alarms," and "alarm fatigue," and the articles were selected based on the entry criteria Results: Out of a total of 264 retrieved articles, 13 articles were included in the study. The obtained results indicated that the most frequent alarms were High PIP, High RR, and High/Low MV, which are not only important alarms, but also have high prevalence in the intensive care unit. Therefore, great attention should be paid while setting the alarm range and reacting to auditory and visual alarms. Conclusion: Failure to pay attention to alarms and setting them improperly has a significant effect on the medical team’s fatigue, which leads to a decrease in the quality of care. Therefore, using a correct management strategy in order to increase the medical team’s knowledge and reduce unnecessary alarms can play an effective role in improving the quality of the services provided to the patients hospitalized in special care units. Identifying the important alarms of mechanical ventilators and using the appropriate strategy to set the alarms correctly can increase the quality of the care provided for the patients under mechanical ventilation.