Table 2

Acute illness characteristics including hospital care, intensive care and outcome for the study cohort


Control group (n = 7,626)
Corticosteroid exposure group (n = 2,632)
P

Hospital and intensive care



     Maximal daily Sequential Organ Failure Assessment
3 (0–9)
4 (1–11)
0.0001
     Mechanical ventilation
1,889 (25)
765 (29)
0.0001
     Mechanical ventilation ≥ 96 hours
297 (4)
372 (14)
0.0001
     Tracheostomy
124 (2)
204 (8)
0.0001
     Intensive care stay (days)
1.2 (0.2–4.6)
1.9 (0.3–9.6)
0.0001
     Hospital stay (days)
5.1 (1.3–12.4)
6.8 (2.0–19.0)
0.0001
Corticosteroid exposure



     Hydrocortisone
0
293 (11)

     Dexamethasone
0
783 (30)

     Methyl prednisone or prednisone
0
1,556 (59)

     Start day of corticosteroids
0
0 (0–4)

     Corticosteroid exposure time (days)
0
3 (1–13)

     Total hydrocortisone equivalent (mg)
0
900 (100–6,600)

Concurrent medication



     Catecholamine infusions
2,973 (39)
1,291 (49)
0.0001
     Antibacterial antibiotics
5,217 (68)
2,318 (88)
0.0001
     Antifungal antibiotics
419 (5)
557 (21)
0.0001
     Diuretics
4,360 (57)
1,702 (65)
0.0001
     Insulin
2,424 (32)
1,266 (48)
0.0001
     Proton pump inhibitors or Histamin-2 blockade
5,142 (67)
2,205 (84)
0.0001
Hospital diagnosis category



     Cardiovascular
2,348 (31)
790 (30)
0.5
     Respiratory
1,346 (18)
774 (29)
0.0001
     Neurological
876 (11)
440 (17)
0.0001
     Fluid and electrolytes abnormalities
1,504 (20)
694 (26)
0.0001
     Postoperative complications
856 (11)
406 (15)
0.0001
     Gastrointestinal
1,023 (13)
381 (14)
0.2
     Acute renal failure
375 (5)
265 (10)
0.0001
Hospital outcome



     Hospital death
327 (4)
261 (10)
0.0001
     Discharge to a care facility
1,562 (20)
762 (29)
0.0001

Data presented as median (10–90% percentiles) or actual numbers (percentage).

Rady et al. Critical Care 2006 10:R101   doi:10.1186/cc4971