CARING FOR THE CRITICALLY ILL PATIENT Paresis Acquired in the Intensive Care Unit A Prospective Multicenter Study

ACQUISITION OF NEUROMUSCUlar dysfunction after admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) has been described during the last decade. Although this condition was first reported in a patient with severe asthma who required high doses of corticosteroids and neuromuscular blocking agents, neuromuscular dysfunction acquired in the ICU has also been frequently reported in patients with sepsis or multiple organ dysfunction or both. Peripheral nerve conduction abnormalities have been identified by electrophysiologic examinations, leading to the label critical illness polyneuropathy. The incidence rate and risk factors for ICU-acquired neuromuscular disorders have been reported in prospective observational studies based on electrophysiologic or histologic examination. In these studies, electrophysiologic abnormalities ranged from 47% to 90% of the patients, and histologic abnormalities ranged from 71% to 96%. The sample sizes of these cohorts ranged from 20 to 70 patients. However, despite the potential impact of ICU-