• Christopher D Witiw, George M Ibrahim, Aria Fallah, and R Loch Macdonald.
• Division of Neurosurgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. christopher.witiw@mail.utoronto.ca
• Neurocrit Care. 2013 Jun 1;18(3):291-7.

BackgroundAneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) is a neurologic emergency that typically warrants initial monitoring in a critical care setting. The aim of this study is to identify clinical and radiologic features on admission that predict a protracted critical care admission following aSAH.MethodsExploratory posthoc analysis was performed on the 413 patients enrolled in Clazosentan to Overcome Neurological iSChemia and Infarction OccUrring after Subarachnoid hemorrhage (CONSCIOUS-1), a prospective randomized control trial of clazosentan for the prevention of vasospasm after aSAH. The association between potential clinical and radiographic covariates, and the length of stay (LOS) in a critical care unit after aSAH was determined using a Cox proportional hazards model. Covariates with a significance level of p < 0.20, on univariate analysis, were entered into a multivariate forward conditional analysis to identify independent predictors of prolonged LOS.ResultsThe mean LOS was 12.6 ± 10.6 days. On multivariate analysis, age (hazard ratio [HR] 1.01, 95 % confidence interval [CI] 1.00-1.02; p = 0.032), a history of hypertension (HR 1.30, CI 1.01-1.67; p = 0.045), and a World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies Score of IV-V on admission (HR 1.38, CI 1.05-1.81; p = 0.02) were the clinical features associated with a greater critical care LOS following aSAH. Intracerebral hemorrhage (HR 1.50, CI 1.03-2.21; p = 0.004) and increasing intraventricular clot burden (HR 1.08, CI 1.03-1.14; p = 0.037) on admission computed tomography were the radiologic features associated with prolonged LOS.ConclusionsWe have identified several early risk factors associated with a prolonged critical care stay following aSAH.

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