Mortality in a cardiac intensive care unit.
OBJECTIVE
There are no reliable data on mortality and morbidity of adult patients in modern university-based cardiac intensive care units. Therefore, the present study was aimed to provide complete data in respect to mortality and morbidity of all patients admitted between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2009 to the newly opened cardiac intensive care unit of the Heart Centre of the Cologne University Hospital.


METHODS
All patients admitted to the 6-bed intensive care unit of the Heart Centre of the University of Cologne between January 1 2008 and December 31 2009 were included in this study.


RESULTS
A total of 684 patients were investigated. The majority of patients (71.1%) were male. The overall in-hospital mortality was 32.5%. The most frequent diagnosis was acute coronary syndrome (43.6%). Coronary angiography was performed in 45.5% of all patients. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was the reason for admission in 30.8%, the in-hospital mortality of those patients (46.0%) was much higher compared to the overall mortality.


CONCLUSIONS
Our data demonstrate that despite state-of-the-art university-based intensive care medicine with modern equipment the mortality remains high. These findings will help in calculating the resources required to meet the increasing demand for intensive care medicine.
Department of Internal Medicine III, University of Cologne, Germany. carsten.zobel@uk-koeln.de
Carsten
C
Zobel
Marcus
M
Dörpinghaus
Hannes
H
Reuter
Erland
E
Erdmann
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003325:Coronary Care Units / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D006742:Hospital Bed Capacity; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006785:Hospitals, University / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013997:Time Factors