CHARACTERISTICS AND PROGNOSIS OF PATIENTS WITH VERY LONG STAY IN AN INTENSIVE CARE UNIT

Objective. To describe the characteristics and prognostic factors of elderly patients hospitalized for >= 30 days in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Design. Retrospective analysis of prospectively collected simple data over 6 consecutive years. Setting. Polyvalent ICU of the Insular University Hospital in the Canary Islands (Spain). Patients. Adult patients 70 years who were hospitalized in the ICU for a period of 30 or more days. Primary variables of interest. Demographic data, clinical diagnosis on ICU admission, Apache II, days of renal replacement therapy (RRT), days of mechanical ventilation and the outcome of the survivors one year later were collected. Mortality at one year of the surviving patients was studied. Results. During the study period, 3,786 patients were admitted to the ICU. Of these, 853 (22.5%) patients were >= 70 years old and only 42(4.92%) of these patients remained in the ICU for >= 30 days. We compared the latter with the >= 70 year old patients whose stay in the ICU stay was < 30 days. No statistically significant differences in ICU mortality, Apache II, age, gender and the need for RRT were found. As independent variables associated with the long stay, the multivariate analysis showed only the days of mechanical ventilation (p < 0.05). The surviving patients (>= 70 years old and whose stay in the ICU was >= 30 days) were older and 21(65.62%) were still alive one year later. Conclusions. ICU mortality rates in elderly patients with a stay < or >= 30 days in the ICU were comparable. Survival at one year of the >= 70 year-old patients whose long-term intensive care unit stay was >= 30 days was high. These results are sufficient in our unit to justify prolonged ICU care for elderly patients.