INTRODUCTION Mortality in the ward after an intensive care unit (ICU) stay is considered a quality parameter, and is described as a source of avoidable mortality. Additionally, the attending intensivist frequently anticipates fatal outcome after ICU discharge. Our objective was to test the ability of a new score to stratify patients according to ward mortality after ICU discharge. METHODS A p...

Objectives: Therapy outcomes for newly diagnosed, critically ill lung cancer patients have seldom been evaluated. This study evaluated therapy outcomes for treatment-naïve lung cancer patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). Materials and Methods: Patients were excluded if they had previously received lung cancer treatment, such as systemic chemotherapy, targeted therapy, radiotherapy, or sur...

OBJECTIVE The demonstration that cardiovascular mortality follows a circadian rhythm led us to verify whether patients dying at the intensive unit care (ICU) and at the non-intensive unit care (non-ICU) follow that rhythm. METHODS All hospital's deaths occurring between January 1, 2006 and July 31, 2010 were analyzed. The circadian pattern of the time of death was analyzed in twelve 2 hour in...

Telemedicine for the intensive care unit (Tele-ICU) was founded as a means of delivering the clinical expertise of intensivists located remotely to hospitals with inadequate access to intensive care specialists. This was a retrospective pre- and postintervention study of adult patients admitted to a community hospital ICU. The patients in the preintervention period (n = 630) and during the Tele...

BACKGROUND The aim of the study was to understand the current status of intensive care unit (ICU) in order to optimize the resources achieving the best possible care. METHODS The study analyzed the status of ICU settings based on the Taiwan National Health Insurance database between March 2004 and February 2009. RESULTS A total of 1,028,364 ICU patients were identified. The age was 65 ± 18 ...

BACKGROUND ICU admission is uncommon among obstetric patients. Nevertheless, the epidemiology of ICU utilization is considered to be a useful proxy for study of severe maternal morbidity and near-miss events. However, there is paucity of population-level studies in obstetric patients in the United States. METHODS The Texas Inpatient Public Use Data File and state-based reports were used to id...

BACKGROUND Before discharging a patient from the ICU, an adequate patient evaluation is needed to detect individuals as high risk for unfavorable outcome. A pro- or anti-inflammatory status is a potential risk factor for an adverse outcome, and elevated CRP concentrations have shown to correlate with organ failure. Several studies have been performed to evaluate the use of CRP as a marker of po...

INTRODUCTION Studies have reported associations between diaries kept for intensive care unit (ICU) patients and long-term quality-of-life and psychological outcomes in patients and their relatives. Little was known about perceptions of healthcare workers reading and writing in the diaries. We investigated healthcare worker perceptions the better to understand their opinions and responses to rea...

OBJECTIVES Poor survival of patients with a haematological malignancy admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) prompts for proper admission triage and prediction of ICU treatment failure and long-term mortality. We therefore tried to find predictors of the latter outcomes. METHODS A retrospective analysis of charts and a prospective follow-up study were done, of haemato-oncological patients,...