SOME CLINICAL ASPECTS OF RESPIRATORY INTENSIVE CARE

Two hundred and two patients were treated in the respiratory intensive care unit at Glasgow Royal Infirmary after elective and emergency surgery. The average length of stay was 4.1 days. One hundred and thirty-one patients were admitted after elective and 71 after emergency surgery and the two groups were compared. In each group there were more males than females (1.7:1 in the elective group and 2.5:1 in the emergency group) and the overall survival rates favoured the male patients. Many of the patients were found to have important underlying metabolic and cardiac disturbances, and the mortality rates in these patients differed little in the elective and emergency groups. It is suggested that a preoccupation with pre-existing respiratory problems resulted in a comparative neglect of important cardiovascular and metabolic features. Preoperative digitalization is suggested for many elderly patients with demonstrable cardiac disease even when there is no evidence of congestive failure. © 1968, British Medical Journal Publishing Group. All rights reserved.