• Rafael Herruzo, José R Banegas, Juan J de la Cruz, Santiago Muñoz-Ratero, and Vidal Garcia-Torres.
• Departamento de Medicina Preventiva, Hospital Universitario La Paz, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, España. rafael.herruzo@uam.es
• Enferm. Infecc. Microbiol. Clin. 2009 Dec 1;27(10):580-4.

IntroductionInfections may play an important role in mortality in burn patients, but this impact is not manifested in multivariate analyses that calculate the probability of death on admission.Patients And MethodsIn a cohort of 1,773 ICU patients, logistic regression analysis was used to determine the prognostic factors for death. Subsequently, the cohort was divided into 2 groups according to length of ICU stay: 1-10 days or more than 10 days. The groups contained a similar number of patients and the analysis was repeated in each one.ResultsOverall mortality in the 1,773 patients was 12.2%. In the stratified analysis mortality was 8.5% for the 890 patients who were in the ICU for 10 days or less and 15.8% for the 883 who stayed longer. The prognostic factors for death in the 2 groups were very different and had to be studied separately. In the group with a shorter ICU stay, the prognostic factors were similar to those of the entire cohort (eg, age, burned body surface area); in the group with a longer stay, these factors lost power and other factors, such as bacteraemia and pneumonia, gained significance.ConclusionsEstimation of the risk of death in ICU burn patients should be re-evaluated at 10 days after admission.

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