title: Sound Pressure Levels in 2 Veterinary Intensive Care Units.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Intensive care units (ICUs) in human hospitals are consistently noisy environments with sound levels sufficient to substantially decrease sleep quality. Sound levels in veterinary ICUs have not been studied previously, but environmental sound has been shown to alter activity in healthy dogs.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Veterinary ICUs, like those in human medicine, will exceed international guidelines for hospital noise.
  
  
  METHODS
  NA.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective, observational study performed consecutively and simultaneously over 4 weeks in 2 veterinary ICUs. Conventional A-weighted sound pressure levels (equivalent continuous level [a reflection of average sound], the sound level that is exceeded 90% of the recording period time [reflective of background noise], and maximum sound levels) were continuously recorded and the number of spikes in sound >80 dBA were manually counted.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Noise levels were comparable to ICUs in human hospitals. The equivalent continuous sound level was higher in ICU1 than in ICU2 at every time point compared, with greatest differences observed on week day (ICU1, 60.1 ± 3.7 dBA; ICU2, 55.9 ± 2.5 dBA, P < .001) and weekend nights (ICU1, 59.9 ± 2.4 dBA; ICU2, 53.4 ± 1.7 dBA, P < .0001) reflecting a 50% difference in loudness. Similar patterns were observed for the maximum and background noise levels. The number of sound spikes was up to 4 times higher in ICU1 (162.3 ± 84.9 spikes) than in ICU2 (40.4 ± 12.2 spikes, P = .001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings show that sound in veterinary ICUs is loud enough to potentially disrupt sleep in critically ill veterinary patients.
authors.affiliation: CARE Centre Animal Hospital, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.|The Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fullagar
authors.affiliation: Veterinary Clinical and Diagnostic Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: S R
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0936-4834
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Boysen
authors.affiliation: Western Veterinary Specialist and Emergency Centre, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Toy
authors.affiliation: Western Veterinary Specialist and Emergency Centre, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Makwana
authors.affiliation: Veterinary Clinical and Diagnostic Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.|Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: D S J
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Pang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004285:Dogs; D006762:Hospitals, Animal / Q000592:standards*; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000592:standards*; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D014730:Veterinary Medicine / Q000592:standards*
keywords: Critical care; Hospital soundscape; Noise; Sleep