Abstract
Background: Treatment of elderly patients on intensive care units is an increasing challenge all over the world. Objectives: To evaluate short- term survival and long-term quality of life im-plications of intensive care for the elderly. Methods: Retrospective analysis of 314 patients 75 years of age or more requiring over 48 hours of intensive care. Results: In multivariate analy-sis, significant risk factors for mortality were chronic renal impairment (OR for survival .30, p 24 h (OR 4.5), hemodialysis (OR 6.8), and vasopressor therapy (OR 2.5, p < 0.001 for each). A health survey questionnaire in an up to 60-month follow-up of 28 patients revealed considerably lower physi-cal subscores of our patients compared to the general elderly population. Conclusions: Elderly patients benefit from intensive care in terms of survival. Complications are frequent, as are severe consequences for long-term quality of life. Short-term mortality in elderly intensive care patients correlates most closely to pre- existing disease, not age.
Highlights
With the general population getting older and older, physicians in general and intensivists in particular are having to treat more elderly patients every year
We aimed to study mortality and survival in patients > 74 years admitted to the surgical intensive care unit (ICU) of a university hospital
We hypothezised that increasing age correlates with a worse short-term outcome and longer ICU-therapy, but that long-term quality of life (QoL) is comparable with the general population
Summary
With the general population getting older and older, physicians in general and intensivists in particular are having to treat more elderly patients every year. Short-term survival is a priority, as are the longterm health consequences and quality of life (QoL) after treatment on an intensive care unit (ICU). We aimed to determine the differences in QoL by administering the Short Form 36 (SF-36) QoL questionnaire to a subgroup of survivors and comparing their responses with standardized results from the general population of Germany. We hypothezised that increasing age correlates with a worse short-term outcome and longer ICU-therapy, but that long-term QoL is comparable with the general population. Objectives: To evaluate shortterm survival and long-term quality of life implications of intensive care for the elderly. Short-term mortality in elderly intensive care patients correlates most closely to preexisting disease, not age
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