Articles: intensive-care-units.
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Critical care medicine · Nov 1998
Multicenter Study Comparative StudyPatients readmitted to the intensive care unit during the same hospitalization: clinical features and outcomes.
To determine the clinical features and outcomes of patients readmitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) during the same hospital stay and the causes for these readmissions. ⋯ Patients with GI and neurologic diseases are at greatest risk of requiring ICU readmission. Respiratory diseases are the major reason for readmission due to new complications. Readmitted patients have a high risk of hospital death that may be underestimated by the usual physiologic indicators on either initial admission or readmission. Further studies are required to determine if patients at risk for readmission can be identified early to improve the outcome.
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Critical care medicine · Nov 1998
Multicenter StudyUse of the SOFA score to assess the incidence of organ dysfunction/failure in intensive care units: results of a multicenter, prospective study. Working group on "sepsis-related problems" of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine.
To evaluate the use of the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score in assessing the incidence and severity of organ dysfunction in critically ill patients. ⋯ The SOFA score is a simple, but effective method to describe organ dysfunction/failure in critically ill patients. Regular, repeated scoring enables patient condition and disease development to be monitored and better understood. The SOFA score may enable comparison between patients that would benefit clinical trials.
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Critical care medicine · Nov 1998
Comparative StudyIntensive care unit prognostic scoring systems to predict death: a cost-effectiveness analysis.
To evaluate the cost-effectiveness, using the technique of decision analysis, of withdrawing care from patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) who are predicted to have a high probability of death (>90%) after 48 hrs using a mortality risk estimate based on daily Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) III scores. ⋯ Unless daily mortality risk estimates based on APACHE III can be shown to retain the same level of predictive power in ICUs outside the development database, it is unlikely that the incremental cost-effectiveness gained by using them as the basis to withdraw care is sufficient to justify their use in this manner.