Therapeutic procedures performed in intensive care unit patients: an epidemiological description

Abstract

The aim of this study was to characterize the therapeutic procedures performed on critically ill patients assisted in a Serious Patient Unit in the coastal lowlands of Rio de Janeiro. This is a documentary, retrospective research with a quantitative approach. There was a predominance of elderly (48.8%), male (55%). Having the neurological system as the main altered (34.5%), due to hemorrhagic (34.7%) and ischemic (25%) stroke. Most of the sample underwent therapeutic procedures (64.3%), with mechanical ventilation being the most performed (86.1%), with the evolutionary outcome of death (47%), as the main cause of cardiogenic shock (24%). The characteristics found become essential for clinical practice in the face of critically ill patients, since it can support relevant data that make it possible to help improve the quality of care.