Abstract
Objectives: To assess the numbers, characteristics and outcome for patients requiring long-term intensive care. Design and setting: Observational cohort study in 23 Scottish intensive care units over a 3-year period. Patients and participants: 323 patients with an ICU stay of 30 days or more. Measurements and results: Although representing only 1.6% of patients, those with long stays occupied 15.7% of bed-days. Hospital survival among these patients was 59.9%. With the available data it was not possible to discriminate survivors from non-survivors. Conclusions: Since these patients have a relatively high hospital survival, resources should not be withheld from them on the basis of prolonged ICU stay alone, even in countries with limited ICU provision.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Final revision received: 23 January 2001
Electronic Publication
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hughes, M., MacKirdy, F., Norrie, J. et al. Outcome of long-stay intensive care patients. Intensive Care Med 27, 779–782 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/s001340100896
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s001340100896