Mortality of Adult Critically Ill Subjects With Cancer.

BACKGROUND: Cancer patients may require intensive care support for postoperative care, complications associated with underlying malignancy, or toxicities related to cancer therapy. The higher mortality rates found in this population than in the population of ICU patients without cancer may be attributable to confounding due to a higher prevalence of multiple organic dysfunctions at ICU admission in patients with malignancy; however, data regarding this hypothesis are scarce. Accordingly, we performed the present study to compare the crude and propensity score-matched mortality rates between adult subjects with and without cancer admitted to a mixed medical-surgical ICU. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of a comprehensive longitudinal ICU database in a tertiary referral hospital in Southern Brazil. All adult subjects who were admitted to the ICU from January 2008 to December 2014 were evaluated. Crude and propensity score-matched all-cause 30-d mortality rates of critically ill subjects with cancer were compared with those of critically ill subjects without cancer. RESULTS: A total of 4,221 subjects were evaluated. The survival analysis revealed that the crude mortality rate was higher among subjects with cancer than among subjects without cancer (18.7% vs 10.2%, P < .001). However, after matching by propensity score, the 30-d mortality rates of subjects with and without cancer were similar (18.5% vs 15.2%, P = .17). CONCLUSIONS: The present study failed to show an association between malignancy and all-cause 30-d mortality rate in adult subjects admitted to a mixed medical-surgical ICU. The propensity score-matched analysis showed no evidence of excessive mortality due to cancer diagnosis.

Mechanical ventilation weaning protocol improves medical adherence and results.

INTRODUCTION: Implementation of a weaning protocol is related to better patient prognosis. However, new approaches may take several years to become the standard of care in daily practice. We conducted a prospective cohort study to investigate the effectiveness of a multifaceted strategy to implement a protocol to wean patients from mechanical ventilation (MV) and to evaluate the weaning success rate as well as practitioner adherence to the protocol. METHODS: We investigated all consecutive MV-dependent subjects admitted to a medical-surgical intensive care unit (ICU) for >24h over 7years. The multifaceted strategy consisted of continuing education of attending physicians and ICU staff and regular feedback regarding patient outcomes. The study was conducted in three phases: protocol development, protocol and multifaceted strategy implementation, and protocol monitoring. Data regarding weaning outcomes and physician adherence to the weaning protocol were collected during all phases. RESULTS: We enrolled 2469 subjects over 7years, with 1,943 subjects (78.7%) experiencing weaning success. Physician adherence to the protocol increased during the years of protocol and multifaceted strategy implementation (from 38% to 86%, p<0.01) and decreased in the protocol monitoring phase (from 73.9% to 50.0%, p<0.01). However, during the study years, the weaning success of all subjects increased (from 73.1% to 85.4%, p<0.001). When the weaning protocol was evaluated step-by-step, we found high adherence for noninvasive ventilation use (95%) and weaning predictor measurement (91%) and lower adherence for control of fluid balance (57%) and daily interruption of sedation (24%). Weaning success was higher in patients who had undergone the weaning protocol compared to those who had undergone weaning based in clinical practice (85.6% vs. 67.7%, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: A multifaceted strategy consisting of continuing education and regular feedback can increase physician adherence to a weaning protocol for mechanical ventilation.