Audit of Postoperative Surgical Intensive Care Unit Admissions

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to conduct an audit of Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) for identifying the admission risk factors and evaluating the outcomes of postoperative surgical patients. DESIGN: This was a prospective, observational study. SETTING: This study was conducted at SICU of a 1500-bedded tertiary care university hospital in Western India. SUBJECT AND METHODS: Two hundred and forty patients admitted to the SICU postoperatively over a period of 15 months. RESULTS: Planned and unplanned postoperative SICU admission rate was 4.45% and 0.09% of the 5284 patients operated. Indications for planned admissions included preoperative medical illnesses, anticipated blood loss, and anticipated mechanical ventilation while unpredicted intraoperative hypotension was the principal cause of unplanned admittance. Univariate analysis for two groups of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status indicated that advanced age, high American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) surgical risk, emergency surgery, planned admissions, and mortality were related to high ASA class. Analysis for ACC/AHA surgical risk showed association of high ACC/AHA surgical risk with advanced age, male gender, high ASA physical status, emergency surgery, planned admissions, and mortality. High mortality was observed in patients with SICU stay of >7 days (75.86%) and readmitted cases (72.73%). CONCLUSION: The need for postoperative critical care is significantly higher in males, elderly, patients with poor preoperative risk stratification scores, preexisting medical illness, major intraoperative hemorrhage, hypotension requiring inotropic support, perioperative respiratory problems and patients undergoing abdominal, trauma, and emergent surgeries. A larger study inclusive of other surgical subspecialties would aid in optimal decision-making for admissions to the SICU.