• Seher Kır, Buğra Kaan Bahçeci, Eyüp Ayrancı, Murat Balkoca, Özkul Yılmaz Çolak, Esma Ayrancı, and Melda Dilek.
• Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun, Turkey. seherkr@yahoo.com.
• Ir J Med Sci. 2021 Feb 1; 190 (1): 317-324.

BackgroundThe individuals over 65 years old constitute an important patient population of medical intensive care units (ICUs).AimTo evaluate the risk factors for mortality in a medical ICU consisting a group of patients with a large number of co-morbidities.MethodsThis is a retrospective study involving patients who were followed for more than 48 h. The cohort was divided into two groups according to age: (1) young, < 65 years old, and (2) elderly, ≥ 65 years old.ResultsA total of 693 patients (303 F, 390 M) were included. The median age was 68 years (18-97). There were 279 (40.3%) young and 414 (59.7%) elderly patients. There was no difference between the groups in gender and mortality (p = 0.436, p = 0.932, respectively). Most of the co-morbid diseases were more common in the elderly except solid malignancies which were more common in young patients (p = 0.033). Long ICU stay, long hospital stay before ICU, high APACHE II and Charlson co-morbidity index scores, pneumonia, acute hepatic failure/coma, malignancy, acute hemodialysis, need for vasopressors, and invasive mechanical ventilation were independent predictors of ICU mortality.ConclusionAge and gender were not found to be predictors of mortality. There was no survival advantage between young and elderly patients. Co-morbid diseases, apart from malignancy, had no effect on mortality. In developing countries, where patients with terminal illness and multiple co-morbid diseases are treated in the ICU, age should not be a determining factor in patient selection for ICU or in the treatment decisions to be applied to patients.

20 keywords...

hide…