• Gülbin Aygencel, Nazlıhan Boyacı Dündar, Melda Türkoğlu, Zeynep Arzu Yegin, Zübeyde Nur Özkurt, and Abdullah Münci Yağcı.
• Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Intensive Care Medicine, Gazi University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey
• Turk J Med Sci. 2021 Aug 30; 51 (4): 209521002095-2100.

Background/AimThe aim of the study was to investigate whether treating haematological malignancy (HM) patients in a separate intensive care unit (ICU) would reduce ICU mortality.Materials And MethodsHM patients treated by the same ICU team in a general medical ICU (GM-ICU) and a separate haematology ICU (H-ICU) were included in this study. Patients’ demographic characteristics and ICU data were recorded retrospectively. Differences in the ICU course and prognosis between these two groups were determined.ResultsA total of 251 patients (102 from GM-ICU, 149 from H-ICU) were included in this study. The disease severity and organ failure scores at ICU admission and underlying HMs were not different between the two groups. Patients waited longer for admission to GM- ICU. Therapeutic procedures were performed significantly more frequently in GM-ICU. ICU complications were not different between the groups. ICU mortality rates were higher in GM-ICU (59.8% vs 37.6%, p = 0.006).ConclusionA separate ICU allocated for haematology patients will allow timely and rapid admission of HM patients to ICU. Thus, mortality rates of HM patients needing ICU care will decline.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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