Outcome of long-stay intensive care patients

Objectives: To assess the numbers, characteristics and outcome for patients requiring long-term intensive care. Design and setting: Observational cohort study in 23 Scottish intensive care units over a 3-year period. Patients and participants: 323 patients with an ICU stay of 30 days or more. Measurements and results: Although representing only 1.6% of patients, those with long stays occupied 15.7% of bed-days. Hospital survival among these patients was 59.9%. With the available data it was not possible to discriminate survivors from non-survivors. Conclusions: Since these patients have a relatively high hospital survival, resources should not be withheld from them on the basis of prolonged ICU stay alone, even in countries with limited ICU provision.