Article Sidebar
Published:
Feb 2, 2024Article Details
Copyright of published material remains in the Authors’ name. This allows authors to use their work for their own non-commercial purposes without seeking permission from the Publisher, subject to properly acknowledging the Journal as the original place of publication.
Authors are free to copy, print and distribute their articles, in full or in part, for teaching activities, and to deposit or include their work in their own personal or institutional database or on-line website. Authors are requested to inform the Journal/Publishers of their desire/intention to include their work in a thesis or dissertation or to republish their work in any derivative form (but not for commercial use).
Material submitted for publication in the SAJCC is accepted provided it has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. Please inform the editorial team if the main findings of your paper have been presented at a conference and published in abstract form, to avoid copyright infringement.
Main Article Content
Groote Schuur Hospital neurosurgical intensive care unit: A 2-year review of admission characteristics
Abstract
Background: At Groote Schuur Hospital (GSH), the neurosurgical intensive care unit (NsICU) is a 6-bed unit headed by a specialist neurosurgeon with extensive experience in neurocritical care, working in close collaboration with intensivists from the Division of Critical Care. There is currently no detailed analysis of the demographics, diagnosis and management of patients admitted to the NsICU at GSH.
Objectives: To provide a detailed descriptive analysis of the demographics, diagnosis and management of patients admitted to the NsICU at GSH from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2021.
Methods: A retrospective descriptive analysis was done of patients who received treatment in the NsICU from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2021.
Results: A total of 685 patients were admitted to the unit over a 2-year period, with a male preponderance (68.2%). The average age was 42.5 (standard deviation (SD) 17.2) years. The most common neurosurgical diagnoses were traumatic brain injuries (39.6%), brain tumours (22.6%) and aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhages (9.9%). Emergency admissions comprised 76.6% of the total and 86.7% of patients were admitted postoperatively. Three hundred and seventy-two patients (54.3%) required mechanical ventilation, 132 (19.3%) required both an intracranial pressure (ICP) monitor and brain tissue oxygenation monitor, 86 (12.5%) needed placement of an external ventricular drain, 50 (7.3%) needed placement of a tracheostomy tube and 16 (2.3%) needed placement of an ICP monitor only. The average duration of stay was 5.5 (1.3) days and NsICU mortality over 2 years was 11.1%.
Conclusion: The NsICU at GSH manages predominantly male trauma patients and a significant number of admitted patients require specialised invasive intracranial monitoring.
