Etiology and Outcomes of ARDS in the Elderly Population in an Intensive Care Unit in North India

Background: Whether age would impact the outcomes in subjects with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) remains unclear. Herein, we study the effect of age as a predictor of mortality in ARDS.

Materials And Methods: We categorized consecutive subjects with ARDS as either ARDS (age >65 years) or ARDSnon (age ≤65 years) admitted to the respiratory intensive care unit (ICU) of a tertiary care hospital in North India between January 2007 and December 2019. We compared the baseline clinical and demographic characteristics, lung mechanics, and mortality between the two groups. We also analyzed the factors predicting ICU survival using multivariate logistic regression analysis.

Results: We included 625 patients (ARDS, 140 [22.4%] and ARDS, 485 [77.6%]) with a mean (standard deviation) age (56.3% males) of 40.6 (17.8) years. The ARDS were more likely ( = 0.0001) to have the presence of any comorbid illness compared to ARDS. The elderly subjects had significantly higher pulmonary ARDS than the younger group. The severity of ARDS was however, similarly distributed between the two study arms. There were 224 (35.8%) deaths, and the mortality was significantly higher ( = 0.012) in the ARDS than the to ARDS (ARDS vs ARDS, 45 vs 33.2%). On multivariate logistic regression analysis, the baseline sequential organ failure assessment scores, presence of pulmonary ARDS, and the development of new organ dysfunction were the independent predictors of mortality.

Conclusion: The outcomes in subjects with ARDS are dependent on the severity of illness at admission and the etiology of ARDS rather than the age alone.

How To Cite This Article: Sehgal IS, Agarwal R, Dhooria S, Prasad KT, Muthu V, Aggarwal AN. Etiology and Outcomes of ARDS in the Elderly Population in an Intensive Care Unit in North India. Indian J Crit Care Med 2021;25(6):648-654.