title: Characteristics and outcome of patients admitted to the ICU following bariatric surgery.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study evaluates the characteristics and outcome of patients admitted to the ICU following bariatric surgery.
  
  
  METHODS
  Descriptive study. A review of a prospectively collected database of our bariatric surgery procedures from 2003 until 2006 was performed. The study was performed in a tertiary level, mixed medical and surgical, adult ICU of a large referral hospital.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 265 patients undergoing bariatric surgery (mainly gastroplasties and Roux-en-Y gastric bypasses), 22 (8%) were admitted to the ICU, of which 14 (64%) were on an elective basis and eight (36%) emergently. Hospital length of stay (LOS) for all patients was 4.5 days and ICU LOS was 12 days. Most elective admissions were standard procedure because of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) or super obesity, with a median ICU stay of 1 day. Emergent admissions were mainly done after emergent surgery due to surgical complications and had a median ICU stay of 8 days. Only two patients needed intensive care for more than 3 days. There were no deaths during ICU stay.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The ICU admission rate in our report is 8%. This study showed that 32 ICU days are needed per 100 diverse bariatric procedures. Most patients are admitted to the ICU for only a few days and the majority of the admissions is planned.
authors.affiliation: Department of Intensive Care, Catharina Hospital, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Renee J C
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: van den Broek
authors.forename: Marc P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Buise
authors.forename: Francois M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: van Dielen
authors.forename: Alexander J G H
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Bindels
authors.forename: André A J
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: van Zundert
authors.forename: J Frans
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Smulders
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D050110:Bariatric Surgery; D015992:Body Mass Index; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003422:Critical Care; D005260:Female; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D009767:Obesity, Morbid / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome