Patterns of Admission in Intensive Care Unit of Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Background: It is well known that early appropriate referrals of critically ill patients to an ICU can significantly reduce the mortality. At the same time, improper admissions to ICU limits bed availability that adversely affects ICU functioning. Objective: To determine the patterns of admissions and outcome in Medical and Surgical Intensive care Units.
Material & Methods: A retrospective review of all patients admitted in medical and surgical ICU of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad from 2014 to 2016 was done. Data was collected from admission registers and patients’ files. Data was analyzed using SPSS software version 20.0. Chi-square test was applied and P-value < 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: Study recruited data of 1652 patients admitted to intensive care unit of PIMS hospital. There were 769(46.5%) males and 883(53.5%) females. Among all the patients, 503(30.4%) were admitted to medical intensive care unit while 1149(69.6%) were admitted to surgical intensive care Unit. 684(41.4%) had undergone mortality while 968(58.6%) remained alive. Overall mean length of hospital stay was 7.4±4.1SD, mean length of mechanical ventilation 4.1±2.1SD and mean length of supplemental ventilation was 1.5±0.11SD. Acute abdomen (13.1%) and head injuries (12%) were most common causes for admission in ICU. Statistically significant association between years (2014, 2015 & 2016) and disease (p=0.000), years and mortality (p=0.000), years and age (p=0.000), intensive care unit and gender (p=0.01), intensive care unit and age (p=0.02) was reported.
Conclusion: Acute abdomen and Head injuries had highest number of admissions in Medical and Surgical intensive care unit of PIMS hospital. Developing a well-equipped trauma ICU with adequately trained staff will help improve the outcome of patients.