Characteristics, incidence, and outcome of patients admitted to the intensive care unit with myasthenia gravis

Abstract

BackgroundThere are limited data on the characteristics, incidence, and mortality of patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) admitted to the ICU. AimsTo study the epidemiology, characteristics and outcome of patients with MG in Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) ICUs over a decade. MethodsWe performed a retrospective observational, cross sectional study of data from the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) Adult Patient Database (APD). We collected data on all adult patients admitted with a primary diagnosis of MG to 159 Australian and 19 New Zealand ICUs between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2015.We extracted detailed relevant data and performed statistical assessment. ResultsWe identified 245 patients admitted to ICU with the primary diagnosis of MG, with an incidence increasing from 1 to 2.5 per thousand ICU admissions (P<0.0001) and from 1 to 2.2 per million people (P=0.02). Mean age was 60years with more patients being female (53.7% vs 47.3%) and 91 (37.1%) patients received mechanical ventilation. Hospital mortality occurred in 13 (5.3%) patients with a mortality rate lower than in other ICU patients. ConclusionsIn ANZ, the ICU and population incidence of MG has increased over the last decade. However, its mortality rate was low.