An Appraisal of Mortality in Intensive Care Unit of a Level III Military Hospital of Bangladesh.

BACKGROUND

Mortalities in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) are high and widely variable. The unpredictability of death rates is attributable to age, sex, nature and severity of illness, comorbidity, well-timed medical attention, quality of the attending staffs, iatrogenic events, total management facilities, and overall grade of the ICU in general.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A total of seventy patients who died in the ICU of a Level III Combined Military Hospital within a period of 2 years were studied in retrospect to review the mortality pattern.

RESULTS

Overall mortality rate was 3.58%, among which 81.43% were male and 18.57% were female. The mortality rate in geriatric patients was 12.26% and 2.84% in the age group of 12-60 years and 2.56% in below 12 years. The major causes of death were ischemic heart disease (20%), cerebrovascular disease (14.28%), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (10%). Highest incidence of death occurred during 1-3 days of ICU stay (34.28%) and the lowest was at 4 days to 1 week (4.28%).

CONCLUSION

Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is remaining as the most important cause of mortality in our community although many countries have succeeded in reducing the IHD mortality by a combination of lifestyle modification and improving the health-care delivery systems.