Australian patients admitted to ICU who survive to discharge have worse long-term survival than the general population, except for the elderly admitted to ICU following cardiac surgery. These findings may assist during goal-of-care discussions with patients during an ICU admission.

We conducted a retrospective cohort study of adult patients discharged alive from hospital following admission to all Intensive Care Units (ICUs) in the state of Victoria, Australia between July 2007 and June 2018.

A total of 130,775 patients from 23 ICUs were included (median follow-up 3.6 years post-discharge). At 1-year post-discharge, survival was 90% compared to the age-matched cohort of 98%.

All sub-groups had worse long-term survival than their age-matched general population cohort, apart from elderly patients admitted following cardiac surgery who had better or equal survival.

Multiple demographic, socio-economic, diagnostic, acute and chronic illness factors were associated with long-term survival.

Read More