Causes and duration of hospitalization and mortality rate in intensive care units in Central province

Since there are disagreements about the relationship between the duration of hospitalization and complications outbreak and the causes of mortality, this study was conducted to investigate the epidemiology of causes of hospitalization, complications and mortality of the hospitalized patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) of Central province’s hospitals. In this descriptive cross sectional study, 981 patients who were admitted in the Central provinces’ ICUs in 2008 were selected as the participants of the study. The patients’ neurologic, respiratory, hemodynamic conditions, vital signs and physical injuries were analyzed and recorded in the check list. At the time of patients’ release or death, the final analysis was done in terms of the symptoms and signs of the disease. Data were analyzed using SPSS 11 statistical software and logistic regression, probability ratio and chi square tests. The most common cause of death was a cardiac arrhythmia (28. 1%). The most prevalent cause of hospitalization was accident (12.6%) and coma (12.1%). The dominant complication among the respiratory complications was infection in all ICUs. The average hospitalization duration of studied patients was 7 days. Accident and heart diseases were the most common causes of death in ICU.