Long-term outcome of elderly patients after intensive care treatment

In general, elderly patients have poorer outcomes than younger patients after intensive care treatment. Diagnosis at admission and high age mainly influence short-term mortality within the first few months after intensive care, while comorbitities and functional status are more pivotal regarding long-term mortality. Furthermore, the main reasons for reduced physical fitness and neurocognitive consequences that often last for many months after intensive care treatment of older patients are described. Many outcome studies show that physical und mental sequelae after intensive care treatment are not only substantial but also unpredictable. Due to the constant improvement of intensive care treatment during recent decades, increasingly more patients survive their acute critical disease. Now it is time to focus on translational research to discover causal relationships between intensive care treatment and morbidity during follow-up to improve the quality of survival.