Intensive care medicine
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Intensive care medicine · Sep 2011
Review Meta AnalysisSeverity assessment tools to guide ICU admission in community-acquired pneumonia: systematic review and meta-analysis.
The aim of this meta-analysis was to determine if severity assessment tools can be used to guide decisions regarding intensive care unit (ICU) admission of patients with community-acquired pneumonia. ⋯ Large variations exist in the use of ICU resources between different studies and different healthcare systems. Scoring systems designed to predict 30-day mortality perform less well when ICU admission is taken into account. Further studies of dedicated ICU admission scores are required.