BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Each intensive care units result has to be observed in the context of medical care, as well as the institution witch it belongs. There are many types of prognostic index in intensive care. The APACHE II was introduced by Knaus et al. in 1985, being a widely used system to evaluate the illness severity in intensive care patients. This objective was evaluated the prognostic index (APACHE II) in patients submitted to elective or emergency gastrointestinal surgery admitted to the ICU. METHODS: Medical school intensive care unit. It was collected the following data: age, sex, length of stay, intensive care indication, type of surgery (elective or emergency), body mass index (BMI) APACHE II and predicted mortality. RESULTS: A total of 38 patients data were collected during the period of April 2005 to April 2006. Eighteen patients died and twenty survived. The age of the non-survivors varied from 44 to 92 (mean age 66.6); while the age of the survivors varied from 28 to 78 (mean age 59. 1). The BMI of the non-survivors varied from 22 to 29 (mean body mass index 26) while in the other group the mean body mass index was 25. 6. No significant difference was noted in the age and body mass index of both groups. The length of stay varied from 2 to 52 days in the non-survivors group (mean 11.3 days), while in the survivors group varied from 1 to 30 days (mean 4.9). The APACHE II varied from 5 to 32 in the non-survivors group (mean 19.14). While in the survivors group varied from 1 to 18 (mean 8.6). The length of stay and APACHE II demonstrated a significant difference in both groups, being higher in the non-survivors group. The non-survivors predicted mortality varied from 3.1 to 84.9 (mean 38.8); while the survivors mean was 7.5. The Standardized Mortality Rate in this study was 1.22. CONCLUSIONS: Non-survivors patients APACHE II was higher than the survivors; the SMR was similar to others studies; the length of stay was longer in the non-survivors group; no statistic difference was noted in the body mass index.
APACHE II; surgical patients
