Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Admission Decisions in the Elderly : the ICE-CUB Study

A Prospective Multicenter Study Examining the Criteria That Determine ICU Admission of Patients Over 80 Who Present to an Emergency Department and Evaluating the Impact of ICU Admission on Short and Mid-term Vital and Functional Outcome

Percentage of patients over 80 admitted in ICU varies greatly from one center to another. ICU admission criteria of older patients are scarcely described and benefit of ICU admission for those patients is uncertain. In this study, we prospectively studied old patients arriving to the emergency department of 15 French hospitals with conditions that potentially warrant ICU admission.The working hypothesis was that ICU admission was associated with a 20% decrease in six-month mortality.

This was a prospective multicenter observational cohort study of elderly individuals presenting to one of 15 emergency departments and possibly qualifying for admission to an ICU. To be included, subjects had to be aged at least 80 years and be diagnosed by the ED physician with one of 74 conditions potentially warranting ICU admission.Outcome studied are ICU eligibility as assessed by emergency and ICU physicians, hospital and six-month death and changes in functional status in the six month following emergency department visit.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age over 80
• Be assigned by the emergency physician with one of 74 conditions potentially warranting ICU admission

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patient's refusal