title: Intensive care unit stay of more than 14 days after cardiac surgery is associated with non-cardiac organ failure.
abstract: Some studies have shown an association between a prolonged intensive care unit (ICU) stay and risk factors such as mediastinal re-exploration, advanced age, low ejection fraction, lung disease and organ failure. The aim of this retrospective study was first to evaluate peri-operative risk factors (n = 2683) and secondly to evaluate long-term survival (n = 2563) in cardiac surgery patients with an ICU stay > 14 days. Long-term survival was assessed in an observational 3-year follow-up study. An ICU stay of > 14 days was associated independently with respiratory failure and dialysis-dependent acute renal failure, and with a significantly lower survival rate. Since an ICU stay is associated with a higher hospital and long-term mortality, measures should be taken throughout the entire hospital stay to identify and reduce the risk of organ failure.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Campus Charité Mitte, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany. ortrud.vargas@charite.de
authors.forename: O V
authors.initials: OV
authors.lastname: Hein
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Birnbaum
authors.forename: K D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Wernecke
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Konertz
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Spies
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D007902:Length of Stay; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013903:Thoracic Surgery