title: [Survival of haematologic patients admitted to an Intensive Care Unit. A 16 years study].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The survival of haematologic patients admitted to Intensive Care units (ICU) is so poor, that it is debatable whether they should be admitted or not to them. We aimed to find out the survival of these patients in an ICU to know if their admission is justified.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective study of 600 haematologic patients (49.4 ± 16.4 years, 58.3% male) representing a total of 660 different admissions to the ICU of a university hospital, with a 6 months follow-up. Haematologic diseases were: leukaemia (50.5%), lymphoma (18.7%), myeloma (10.0%), myelodysplasic syndromes (4.2%), aplastic anaemia or bone marrow aplasia (3.3%), thrombotic microangiopathies and HELLP syndrome (7.4%), and others.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 37.5% of patients survived. Survival of thrombotic microangiopathies and HELLP syndrome was higher (81.8% of patients) than that of leukaemias (26.6%) and lymphomas (49.1%). When the reason for ICU admission was respiratory failure with or without septic shock, the survival was lower (20 and 27% of admissions respectively) than when it was septic shock alone (58.7%). Survival of mechanically ventilated patients was 14.6%, that of those treated with any renal replacement therapy 32.4% and that of patients with both treatments 13.8%. From all mechanically ventilated leukaemia or lymphoma patients, 10.3% survived (93 days in the ICU per life saved) but only 7.7% were alive 6 months later.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Considering that the ICU survival was higher than 10% for all the groups studied, we conclude that admission of haematologic patients to the ICU is appropriate.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Medicina Intensiva, Hospital Universitario y Politécnico La Fe, Valencia, España. rosa.jannone@gmail.com
authors.forename: Rosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jannone Forés
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Botella de Maglia
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bonastre Mora
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006402:Hematologic Diseases / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult