• Lynze R Franko, Todd Hollon, Joseph Linzey, Christopher Roark, Venkatakrishna Rajajee, Kyle Sheehan, Magnus Teig, Shawn Hervey-Jumper, Jason Heth, Daniel Orringer, and Craig A Williamson.
• University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI.
• Crit. Care Med. 2018 Aug 1; 46 (8): 1302-1308.

ObjectivesThe postoperative management of patients who undergo brain tumor resection frequently occurs in an ICU. However, the routine admission of all patients to an ICU following surgery is controversial. This study seeks to identify the frequency with which patients undergoing elective supratentorial tumor resection require care, aside from frequent neurologic checks, that is specific to an ICU and to determine the frequency of new complications during ICU admission. Additionally, clinical predictors of ICU-specific care are identified, and a scoring system to discriminate patients most likely to require ICU-specific treatment is validated.DesignRetrospective observational cohort study.SettingAcademic neurosurgical center.PatientsTwo-hundred consecutive adult patients who underwent supratentorial brain tumor surgery. An additional 100 consecutive patients were used to validate the prediction score.InterventionsNone.Measurements And Main ResultsUnivariate statistics and multivariable logistic regression were used to identify clinical characteristics associated with ICU-specific treatment. Eighteen patients (9%) received ICU-specific care, and 19 (9.5%) experienced new complications or underwent emergent imaging while in the ICU. Factors significantly associated with ICU-specific care included nonelective admission, preoperative Glasgow Coma Scale, and volume of IV fluids. A simple clinical scoring system that included Karnofsky Performance Status less than 70 (1 point), general endotracheal anesthesia (1 point), and any early postoperative complications (2 points) demonstrated excellent ability to discriminate patients who required ICU-specific care in both the derivation and validation cohorts.ConclusionsLess than 10% of patients required ICU-specific care following supratentorial tumor resection. A simple clinical scoring system may aid clinicians in stratifying the risk of requiring ICU care and could inform triage decisions when ICU bed availability is limited.

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