Life after critical illness: an overview

Abstract

What seems clear is the need for a co-ordinated, multidisciplinary, designated recovery and rehabilitation pathway that begins as soon as the patient is admitted into an intensive care unit.

Health-Related Quality of Life and Associated Factors in Intensive Care Unit Survivors 6 Months After Discharge

“…1,2 A systematic review 1 of 21 studies with a total of 7320 adult medical and surgical ICU survivors followed up for at least 6 months after discharge indicated that HRQOL was reduced in almost all assessed domains. The HRQOL often was lower than the patients' HRQOL before the index critical illness.…”

Critical illness trajectory for patients, families and nurses – a literature review

“…For some patients, the recognition of the significant burden that critical illness had placed on family members required personal counselling. In the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Clinical Guideline 83, ‘Rehabilitation after critical illness’ was published in March ; however, there is a general consensus that this has not been embedded or resourced effectively or consistently (Cotton, ; Rattray, ). This is despite the subsequent studies (Ohtake et al , ) reinforcing the requirement for early rehabilitation.…”

“…Nursing documentation of patients' sleep in AGCCUs has been reported by Ritmala‐Castren et al () as being poor, consistently overestimating the volume of sleep and unable to assess sleep quality. Sleep deprivation augments the well‐documented fatigue that patients experience post‐discharge from critical care (Cutler et al , ; Rattray, ; Misak, and others).…”

“…An increased understanding of why muscle loss is so profound is slowly developing with the figure of muscle loss per day being revised upwards to 2–4% per day for patients in critical care (Rattray, ). Intensive care unit–acquired muscle weakness (ICUAW) is described by Latrionica et al (, p. 259); however, the pathophysiology is complex and still incompletely understood.…”

“…The impact of critical illness on patients and their families can be life changing (Misak, ; Rattray, ). Twenty five years ago, we could not even quantify how many people would survive admission to critical care (King's Fund, ).…”