Mortality in a cardiac intensive care unit

• Published in: Clinical research in cardiology 2012-07, Vol.101 (7), p.521-524
• Main Authors: Zobel, Carsten, Dörpinghaus, Marcus, Reuter, Hannes, Erdmann, Erland
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Cardiology; Chi-Square Distribution; Coronary Care Units - statistics & numerical data; Female; Germany - epidemiology; Heart Diseases - diagnosis; Heart Diseases - mortality; Heart Diseases - therapy; Hospital Bed Capacity; Hospital Mortality; Hospitals, University - statistics & numerical data; Humans; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Original Paper; Risk Assessment; Risk Factors; Survival Analysis; Time Factors
• ISSN: 1861-0684; 1861-0692
• DOI: 10.1007/s00392-012-0421-9

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.