Very old ICU patients suffer from a slightly higher ICU mortality rate compared with old ICU patients, according to a study published in Frontiers in Medicine (Lausanne). However, despite the statistically significant differences in mortality, the clinical relevance of such minor differences seems to be negligible, investigators noted. They aimed to compare the mortality, rates of organ support, and length of stay in old versus very old patients with sepsis and septic shock in intensive care. The analysis included 9,385 patients from the multicenter eICU Collaborative Research Data- base with sepsis; 6,184 patients were old (aged 65- 79), and 3,201 were very old (aged 80 and old- er). A multilevel logistic regression analysis was used to fit three sequential regression models for the binary primary outcome of ICU mortality. A sensitivity analysis in patients with septic shock (n = 1,054) was also conducted. In very old pa- tients, the median length of stay was shorter (50 ± 67 hours vs 56 ± 72 hours), and the rate of a prolonged ICU stay was lower (>168 hours; 9% vs 12%) than in old patients. The mortality rate from sepsis was higher in very old patients (13% vs 11%), and after multivariable adjustment, be- ing very old was associated with higher odds for ICU mortality (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.32, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.09-1.59). In pa- tients with septic shock, mortality was also higher in the very old patients (38% vs 36%; aOR 1.50, 95% CI, 1.10-2.06).
