Journal of Medical and Surgical Intensive Care Medicine 2010 , Vol 1, Issue 3
Critically Ill Surgical Patients Followed in a Medical Intensive Care Unit
Mine Durusu Tanrıöver 1 , Bilgin Sait 1 , Arzu Topeli İskit 1 , Begüm Ergan Arsava 2 , Kaya Yorgancı 3
1Department of Internal Medicine, Medical Intensive Care Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey
2Deparment of Pulmonology, Faculty of Medicine, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey
3Department of General Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey
DOI : 10.5152/dcbybd.2010.08

Aim: Postoperative patients, particularly the elderly, might have high hospital mortality rates. A multidisciplinary approach can decrease the mortality rate in this patient population and offer high quality intensive care. The aim of this study was to evaluate the general characteristics and outcome of surgical and trauma patients followed in a medical intensive care unit (MICU).

Material and Methods: Data of critically-ill surgical patients, who were operated on during the MICU stay or within 1 month before  MICU admission, and of trauma patients admitted to the MICU in a tertiary care university hospital between 1 May 2006 and 1 May 2009, were retrospectively collected from a prospectively established database. 

Results: Thirty nine of 794 admissions (5%) in the defined period were trauma or postoperative patients. Twenty six of them had at least one accompanying comorbidity. Among trauma patients, there was just one death. The predicted mortality of the postoperative patients was 33.1%, while the overall observed MICU mortality was 25.6%.

Conclusion: Trauma and high-risk postoperative patients can be followed in MICUs with good ICU care and surgical back-up and good cooperation between medical and surgical departments.

Keywords : Postoperative, medical, intensive care, trauma, mortality