Impact of intensive care management on the prognosis of tetanus. Analysis of 641 cases.

These studies show the results of intensive care management of 306 consecutive patients with tetanus compared with 335 patients treated conservatively in the same hospital before the institution of the ICU. The impact of the ICU treatment was manifested in a decrease in mortality, from 43.58 percent to 15 percent. In addition, while patients treated conservatively died as a consequence of early acute respiratory failure, the main cause of death in the ICU-treated patients was unexpected cardiac arrest, probably related to overactivity of the autonomic nervous system. We conclude that to ensure a high survival rate in patients with tetanus, the treatment must be performed according to established protocol in an ICU.