Results of respiratory treatment in a medical intensive care department

During a three-year period 77 patients (43 men and 34 women, aged 21-82 years, mean age 62.0 years) were treated with mechanical ventilation in a medical intensive care unit. Three patients were treated twice. The most common diagnoses (in decreasing order of frequency) were acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, acute myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular trauma and chronic ischemic cardiac disease. The mean duration of ventilation was 6.4 days. 41 patients (51.3%) survived--80% of whom could be discharged to their home. Patients with chronic pulmonary disease showed the highest survival rate, those with cerebrovascular disease the lowest, with the cardiac patients in-between. It is calculated that it cost NOK 207,000 to treat each patient who survived.