Introduction:
Patients over 79 years of age represent a growing proportion of patients admitted to intensive care units. The aim of the study was to evaluate the characteristics of patients over 79 years of age admitted to the ICU, the course and the results of their treatment as well as survival after discharge from the unit, and to compare these results to those obtained in the remaining population treated at this time in the ICU.

Material and methods:
A retrospective analysis was performed of 870 consecutive patients admitted to the ICU in the Silesian Centre for Heart Diseases in the period of 8 consecutive years. We analysed only the first admissions – all repeat and subsequent hospitalizations were excluded from the analysis. Within this population, we identified 75 patients over 79 years of age (8.6%). For all the analyses, it was assumed that p < 0.05 is statistically significant.

Results:
The reasons for admission in patients over 79 years of age and younger were similar – except for a significantly higher proportion of patients admitted due to complications of acute coronary syndromes (38.7% vs 26.7%, p = 0.03) and pneumonia (8.0% vs. 2.9%, p = 0.04). Overall, 44.0% of elderly and 41.4% of younger patients died in the ICU (p = 0.75). Mortality 30 days after discharge, however, was significantly higher in the elderly patients (45.2% vs 27.3%, p = 0.02). One year mortality according to Kaplan-Meier analysis was 82% in elderly patients and 48% of patients in the remaining population (p = 0.00003).

Conclusions:
Patients over 79 years of age represent a significant group requiring treatment in the ICU. Hospital mortality among the oldest patients is similar to the remaining population, but their long-term outcomes are very poor, which may result from the low quality of care after discharge from the ICU.