Frequency of dermatological lesions in adult intensive care patients

Abstract

Objective: to describe the frequency of dermatological lesions in patients of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of adults of the Hospital de San José and the Hospital Infantil Universitario de San José between January and April 2012. Patients and Methods: a descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out. Patients older than 18 years with a minimum stay of 72 hours in the ICU admitted for dermatological pathology or assessed by dermatology due to the appearance of skin lesions during their stay, were included. Results: 595 patients were evaluated, finding dermatological lesions in 30% (182 patients). The average age was 63.5 years ± 19.1 without gender differences. Admission to the ICU was mainly due to non-surgical reasons with a percentage of 57.3% (105 patients). The most frequent skin lesions were the tertiary lesions observed in 91.8% (168 patients), followed by secondary lesions, with an infectious predominance of 6% (11 patients) and the last ones were the primary ones with only 1.6% (3 patients). Conclusions: dermatological lesions in ICU patients are more frequent than expected and in some cases may be the direct cause of admission to the ICU putting patients"(TM) lives at risk; therefore, we consider important a thorough skin examination in these patients and interdisciplinary work with dermatology to reduce the risk of mortality due to dermatological complications.