5-YEAR SURVIVAL AFTER INTENSIVE-CARE - COMPARISON OF 12,180 PATIENTS WITH THE GENERAL-POPULATION

Objectives: A) To examine the long-term survival of critically ill pat ients compared with the general population in a nationwide sample of p atients requiring intensive care; and b) to analyze long term survival stratified by specific diagnostic subgroups, Design: Prospective, inc eption cohort study, Setting: Twenty five Finnish intensive care units (ICUs) at 17 hospitals, including 13 ICUs in five tertiary care cente rs, Patients: A consecutive sample of 12,180 adult patients who were a dmitted to ICUs in 1987, The sample was further divided into seven dia gnostic subgroups, Interventions: None, Measurements and Main Results: Vital status at 5 yrs after admission to an ICU was examined and comp ared to the age- and gender-adjusted survival of Finland's general pop ulation, Among ICU patients, the 5-yr mortality rate was 3.3 times tha t of Finland's general population (95% confidence interval 3.0 to 3.4) . At 2 yrs, the survival rate paralleled that of the general populatio n, At 5 yrs, the relative survival rate of the ICU patients was 66.7%, Cancer was a strong determinant of a poor outcome in multivariate ana lysis (relative risk 3.17; 95% confidence interval 2.86 to 3.51), The 5-yr mortality rate of the ICU patients compared with the general popu lation was highest among patients admitted to the ICU after intoxicati on, Trauma victims and patients admitted to the ICU with a cardiovascu lar diagnosis reached the risk of death of the general population in t he shortest time, Conclusions: ICU patients reached a life expectancy similar to the general population, on average, 2 yrs after admission, The time after which the survival parallels that of the general popula tion depends, however, on the diagnostic category.