Persistent critical illness: baseline characteristics, intensive care course, and cause of death

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Persistent critical illness (PerCI) is associated with high mortality and discharge to institutional care. Little is known about factors involved in its progression, complications and cause of death. We aimed to identify such factors and the time when the original illness was no longer the reason for intensive care unit (ICU) stay. DESIGN: Retrospective matched case-control study using an accepted PerCI definition (> 10 days in ICU). SETTING: Single-centre tertiary metropolitan ICU. PARTICIPANTS: All adult patients admitted during a 2-year period were eligible, matched on diagnostic code, gender, age and risk of death. MAIN RESULTS: Seventy-two patients staying > 10 days (PerCI c..