Post-intensive care syndrome in primary care: The development of new diseases and primary care services utilisation – a prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Patients experience long-lasting health problems defined as post-intensive care syndrome (PICS) after Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission. Little is known about PICS in primary care. OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether ICU survivors encounter more new International Classification of Primary Care-2 (ICPC-2) diagnoses and general practitioner (GP) contact compared to patients with similar comorbidity without ICU admission. METHODS: Prospective multicentre cohort study in three Dutch general practices. Numbers of disease-episodes and GP contacts of ICU survivors ≥ 16 years admitted between 2008 and 2017 were extracted from GPs’ information systems. A non-ICU reference cohort was matched 1:1 for age, sex, follow-up period and comorbidity groups from patients’ medical history. Negative binominal regression analysis was used to compare both cohorts 0–3, 3–6, 6–12 months, 1–2 and 2–5 years after ICU admission and 1 year prior to admission. RESULTS: ICU survivors (n = 199) encountered more new disease-episodes 1 year before (mean 3.97 (95% confidence interval [CI] 3.50–4.52]]; reference 2.36 [1.28–3.17]) to 2–5 years after ICU admission (3.65 [3.15–4.26]; reference 2.86 [2.52–3.22]). ICU survivors also had more GP contacts 1 year before (mean 19.61 [17.31–22.17]; reference 10.02 [7.81–12.38]) to 2–5 years after ICU admission (18.53 [15.58–21.85]; reference 12.03 [10.33–13.91]). Patients with prior ICU admission did not encounter patterns in specific ICPC-2 chapters compared to non-ICU patients. CONCLUSION: Patients admitted to the ICU encounter more new primary care disease-episodes and GP contacts. As patients present their symptoms to their GP first, it is therefore up to the GP to recognise these critical illness-related symptoms.