OBJECTIVE Patients who have prolonged stay in intensive care unit (ICU) are associated with adverse outcomes. Such patients have cost implications and can lead to shortage of ICU beds. We aimed to develop a preoperative risk prediction tool for prolonged ICU stay following coronary artery surgery (CABG). METHODS 5,186 patients who underwent CABG between 1st April 1997 and 31st March 2002 were...

OBJECTIVE Following cardiac surgery, a great variety in intensive care unit (ICU) stay is observed, making it often difficult to adequately predict ICU stay preoperatively. Therefore, a study was conducted to investigate, which preoperative variables are independent risk factors for a prolonged ICU stay and whether a patient's risk of experiencing an extended ICU stay can be estimated from thes...

BACKGROUND Decreased health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is a significant problem after an intensive care stay and is affected by several known factors such as age, sex, and previous health-state. The objective of this study was to assess the association between memory and self-reported perceived HRQoL of patients discharged from the intensive care unit (ICU). METHODS A prospective, multic...

introduction: deep vein thrombosis (dvt) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in intensive care unit (icu) patients despite use of prophylactic anticoagulant therapy. the aim of the present study was to determine the incidence of dvt among medical and surgical icu patients. methods: in this cross sectional study, patients older than 18 years who were hospitalized in the icu of imam hosse...

OBJECTIVES To construct a predictive model for a prolonged stay in the intensive care unit (ICU) for coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). METHODS Eight hundred and eighty-eight patients undergoing CABG were studied by univariate and multivariate analysis. Prolonged stay in the ICU was defined as >/=3 days stay. Stepwise selective procedure (P</=0.05) was used to identify a subset of v...

BACKGROUND We presumed that the surgeon himself has an impact on the results after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) as there is no unique protocol for the discharge of post-operative cardiac patients at our institution. Therefore, we examined whether the surgeon himself has an impact on the intensive care unit (ICU) stay of isolated CABG patients. METHODS We prospectively studied a tota...

INTRODUCTION The nutritional status of patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) appears to decline not only during their stay in the ICU but also after discharge from the ICU. Recent evidence suggests that gut released peptides, such as ghrelin and peptide YY (PYY) regulate the initiation and termination of meals and could play a role in the altered eating behaviour of sick patients. The aim o...

INTRODUCTION The aims of the present study were to assess patients' memories of their stay in the intensive care unit (ICU) over time, using the Italian version of the ICU Memory (ICUM) tool, and to examine the relationship between memory and duration of ICU stay and infection. PATIENTS AND METHOD Adult patients consecutively admitted to a four-bed ICU of a university hospital, whose stay in ...

BACKGROUND ICU stay is often associated with negative experiences for the individual patient. Many patients are disabled and their communication is restricted during the ICU stay. Specific information on procedures, sensations and coping behavior are thought to reduce anxiety on the ICU. Until now information programs to reduce anxiety were mainly delivered preoperatively, completely neglecting...