A national service evaluation of the impact of alcohol on admissions to Scottish intensive care units?

摘要

Alcohol-related disease adversely affects the outcome of critically ill patients. The burden of this in Scotland is higher than elsewhere in the United Kingdom. In a prospective observational study of all patients admitted to the 24 intensive care units in Scotland we assessed the proportion of admissions in which alcohol-related disease was implicated. Of 771 admissions, 642 (83.3%) were unplanned and 196 (25.4%) were related to alcohol. There was a significantly higher proportion of men in the alcohol-related admissions group (140 (71.4%) vs 291 (50.6%), p?=?0.009). This group was also significantly younger with median (IQR [range]) ages of 51 (38–63 [16–89]) vs 63 (48–73 [16–92]) years (p?