Frequency and risk factors of post-intensive care syndrome components in a multicenter randomized controlled trial of German sepsis survivors.

BACKGROUND

Post-intensive care syndrome (PICS) is a combination of cognitive, psychiatric and physical impairments in survivors of critical illness and intensive care. There is little data on long-term co-occurrence of associated impairments.

METHODS

Analysis of data from 289 sepsis survivors from a German multicenter RCT. Impairments associated with PICS (depression, PTSD, cognitive impairment, chronic pain, neuropathic symptoms, dysphagia) during 24 months follow-up are used to explore the frequency and risk factors of PICS components in three classification models.

RESULTS

The majority of participants showed impairments in 2-3 of 6 domains during follow-up. The overall frequency of PICS according to the classification models ranged from 32.9% to 98.6%. In regression analyses, there were no significant effects in selected ICU-related exposures or covariates for PICS classification models. Regarding individual components, only higher age and longer duration of ICU treatment and mechanical ventilation showed significant positive associations with the occurrence of cognitive impairment during follow-up, as did male gender and higher age for dysphagia.

CONCLUSIONS

Almost all study participants showed impairments associated with PICS in at least one domain. The proposed classification models for PICS appear to be too broad to identify specific risk factors beyond its individual components.