Age is not a risk factor in survival of severely ill patients with co-morbidities in a medical intensive care unit.

Background: The individuals over 65 years old constitute an important patient population of medical intensive care units (ICUs).
Aim: To evaluate the risk factors for mortality in a medical ICU consisting a group of patients with a large number of co-morbidities.
Methods: This is a retrospective study involving patients who were followed for more than 48 h. The cohort was divided into two groups according to age: (1) young, < 65 years old, and (2) elderly, ≥ 65 years old.
Results: A total of 693 patients (303 F, 390 M) were included. The median age was 68 years (18-97). There were 279 (40.3%) young and 414 (59.7%) elderly patients. There was no difference between the groups in gender and mortality (p = 0.436, p = 0.932, respectively). Most of the co-morbid diseases were more common in the elderly except solid malignancies which were more common in young patients (p = 0.033). Long ICU stay, long hospital stay before ICU, high APACHE II and Charlson co-morbidity index scores, pneumonia, acute hepatic failure/coma, malignancy, acute hemodialysis, need for vasopressors, and invasive mechanical ventilation were independent predictors of ICU mortality.
Conclusion: Age and gender were not found to be predictors of mortality. There was no survival advantage between young and elderly patients. Co-morbid diseases, apart from malignancy, had no effect on mortality. In developing countries, where patients with terminal illness and multiple co-morbid diseases are treated in the ICU, age should not be a determining factor in patient selection for ICU or in the treatment decisions to be applied to patients.