Outcome from intensive care. I. A 5-year study of 1308 patients: methodology and patient population

During a 5-year period, from 1979 to 1983, demographic and disease-related data were collected prospectively on 1308 adult patients from 1555 admissions to a multidisciplinary intensive care unit (ICU) in a Danish university hospital. The patients were followed during the stay in ICU, the ensuing hospital stay, and up to 8 years after discharge from hospital. The male: female ratio was 1:1. One-third of the patients were admitted from medical wards, two-thirds were surgical patients (including gynaecological and obstetric patients). Median age was 60 years, and 25% of the patients were aged 70 years and older. Median length of stay in ICU was 2 days, and the median length of the ensuing hospital stay was 10 days. Respiratory diseases (43%) and cardiovascular diseases (16%) were the most common primary indications for ICU admission; increasing age was associated with more frequent cardiovascular diseases. Six-hundred and twenty-three (48%) patients needed mechanical ventilation; of these 373 were on mechanical ventilation for more than 24 h. Increasing age was associated with a more frequent need for mechanical support. Cancer was diagnosed in 290 patients prior to ICU admission. In 41% the cancer originated from the digestive tract. Cancer was more frequent in surgical patients than in medical patients. The APACHE- and TISS-systems were simultaneously applied to a representative sample of 216 consecutive admissions. The average APACHE score was 14.9 +/- 8.2 and the average TISS score 28.3 +/- 11.1 points. The ICU patients presented in this paper do not differ much from ICU patients in other outcome studies.