The following is a summary of “Characteristics of victims of trauma requiring invasive mechanical ventilation with a short stay in critical care,” published in the March 2024 issue of Emergency Medicine by Krieger, et al.

A considerable proportion of patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) experience rapidly resolving needs and are discharged alive within 24 hours. For a study, researchers sought to characterize the outcomes of critically ill trauma victims with a short stay in the ICU at the institution.

They conducted a retrospective cohort study of all critically ill adult trauma victims presenting to our emergency department (ED) from January 1st, 2011, to December 31st, 2019. They included patients who were endotracheally intubated either in the prehospital setting or the ED and were admitted to the operating room (OR), angiography suite, or ICU. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients discharged alive from the ICU within 24 hours.

Among 3,869 patients meeting the inclusion criteria and alive at 24 hours, 78% were male, with a median age of 40, and 76% suffered blunt trauma. The median injury severity score (ISS) was 21 (interquartile range [IQR] 11–30). In-hospital mortality was 12%. About 17% of patients were discharged alive from the ICU within 24 hours. Around 34% had an ISS ≤ 15. Of those discharged alive within 24 hours, 0.9% died in the hospital, 2% were readmitted to an ICU, and 0.6% required reintubation.

They observed that 17% of patients intubated in the prehospital setting or ED and subsequently hospitalized were discharged alive from the ICU within 24 hours.

Reference: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0735675723006678