The HEALiX Trial: Comparing the Efficacy of the HEALiX Device With Wrist Restraints in a Critical Care Setting

The treatment plan for patients requiring mechanical ventilator support is to provide the minimal amount of analgesics and sedatives necessary for the patient to tolerate the ventilator as lower amounts of these drugs has been shown to improve patient outcomes. Patients in this critical state experience confusion, restlessness, and agitation, which sometimes leads to an unplanned removal of a patient's line or medical device. The current standard of care for limiting the movement of mechanically ventilated patients' in the critical care units in hospitals is the use of physical wrist restraints. Researchers demonstrated that wrist restraints are ineffective in preventing the removal of invasive and adjunct devices and have many negative physical, psychological, physiological, and emotional consequences for the patient and their family. In this proposed research, we will use the innovative medical device called the HEALiX, a newly developed device worn on the arms of mechanically ventilated patients that allows freedom of movement and protects from removing adjunct mechanical ventilation devices and invasive monitoring equipment. This randomized controlled trial will investigate the HEALiX device's effectiveness in preventing the removal of invasive monitoring devices (such as endotracheal tubes, central lines, feeding tubes, etc.) compared with the current standard of care, wrist restraints.