Mechanical ventilation increases mortality risk after ICU discharge

DENVER — Patients who underwent at least 1 week of mechanical ventilation had an increased risk for mortality and functional impairment 1 year after follow-up, according to study results presented at the American Thoracic Society International Conference.“The RECOVER Program and its first phase Towards RECOVER shows that a diverse group of critically ill medical and surgical patients may be risk stratified into groups based on the [Functional Independence Measure (FIM)] at 7 days and by using patient age and ICU length of stay in those who have received mechanical ventilation for 1 or more weeks,” Margaret S. Herridge, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, told Healio.com/Pulmonology. “There is important functional disability across risk groups, but the most compromised outcomes are in those patients over age 66 who have been in the ICU for 2 or more weeks.”