• Abdulaziz Alzeer, Ahmed BaHammam, Mohammed Masood, Sayed Jani Basha, Esam Alhamad, and Sayed Sohail.
• Department of Medicine, King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. alzeerahm@yahoo.com
• Ann Saudi Med. 2006 Nov 1; 26 (6): 461465461-5.

BackgroundBecause little has been reported about the outcome of severe asthma outside the US and western Europe, we performed a retrospective case analysis of patients treated in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) of a university hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to determine the management, complications and outcome of severe asthma requiring ICU admission.MethodsThe records of patients with severe asthma admitted to the MICU between the periods of January 1996 to December 2003 were reviewed. Sixty-one episodes from 54 patients were studied, of which 27 (44%) were male.ResultsAll patients were hypercapnic; 23 (38%) were ventilated. The Acute Physiological and Health Evaluation (APACHE) score II was significantly higher in the ventilated group (P<0.0001). The pH was significantly lower and PaCO2 was significantly higher in the ventilated group (P<0.0001). All patients survived. Only 42% of patients our series received inhaled corticosteroids before admission.ConclusionOur results suggest that severe asthma requiring ICU admission is now safely managed in ICUs. Our results are comparable to recently published data on the treatment of severe asthma in the ICU.

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