Background: There are challenges ahead of short-term hospitalization of low-risk patients hospitalized only for monitoring of severe disease who may die soon after admission. The purpose of this study was to suggest strategies for the management of ICU stay lengths and to ensure optimal use of ICU resources.   Methods: The study was conducted retrospectively on 246 patients admitted to 9 gene...

CONTEXT The high-complexity features of intensive care unit services and the clinical situation of patients themselves render correct prognosis fundamentally important not only for patients, their families and physicians, but also for hospital administrators, fund-providers and controllers. Prognostic indices have been developed for estimating hospital mortality rates for hospitalized patients,...

The Acinetobacter calcoaceticus-Acinetobacter baumannii (ACB) complex has emerged as a high priority among hospital-acquired pathogens in intensive care units (ICUs), posing a challenge to infection management practices. In this study, the clinical characteristics, antimicrobial susceptibility patterns, and patients outcome among genospecies were retrospectively compared. Samples were taken fro...

PURPOSE This study was designed to validate the usefulness of the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II for predicting hospital mortality of critically ill Korean patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS We analyzed data on 826 patients who had been admitted to nine intensive care units and were included in the Fever and Antipyretics in Critical Illness Evaluation study cohort. ...

BACKGROUND/AIMS The bedside index of severity in acute pancreatitis (BISAP) is a new, convenient, prognostic multifactorial scoring system. As more data are needed before clinical application, we compared BISAP, the serum procalcitonin (PCT), and other multifactorial scoring systems simultaneously. METHODS Fifty consecutive acute pancreatitis patients were enrolled prospectively. Blood sample...

Objectives: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an important cause of healthcare-associated pneumonia (HCAP). HCAP confers high morbidity and mortality. In this study, we evaluated risk factors and clinical outomes of MRSA-HCAP. Methods: Between 08/2008 and 09/2010 we conducted a retrospective, singlecenter study. Seven hundred and eighty three patients with MRSA isolated from...

OBJECTIVE Sepsis is still major cause of morbidity and mortality, despite improvements in diagnosis and treatment in modern medicine. Therefore, laboratory examinations that provide correct and rapid results are needed to support the diagnosis. This study was conducted to investigate value of immunological indicators procalcitonin (PCT) and soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells...

Pathogenesis of sepsis includes complex interaction between pathogen activities and host response, manifesting highly variable signs and symptoms, possibly delaying diagnosis and timely life-saving interventions. This study applies traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) Zheng diagnosis in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock to evaluate its adaptability and use as an early predictor of seps...

OBJECTIVE To study the practice of foregoing life support (FLS) therapy between the young old and the old old. PATIENTS AND METHODS This is a retrospective case-control study of case records for FLS events and illness characteristics among young old patients (55 to 74 years) and old old patients (75 years and older) admitted in 1998 to the medical intensive care unit (MICU). RESULTS Fifty-s...

CONTEXT Various scoring systems have been developed to predict mortality and morbidity in Intensive Care Unit (ICU), but different data has been reported so far. AIMS This retrospective clinical study aims to evaluate predictability of Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II), APACHE IV, Simplified Acute Physiology Score III (SAPS III) scoring systems regarding with morta...