The care of neurosurgical patients in intensive care units has proven to be beneficial not only for patients but also for hospital institutions. However, the benefits of the care that these units provide to the neurocritical patient depend on multiple factors intrinsic to the patient, which should be studied in order to make better use of resources in the care of them. The present descriptive work shows an analysis of the characteristics of the patients admitted by the specialty of Neurosurgery to the Intensive Care Unit of the Ricardo Palma Clinic during 2007, and a total of 115 patients were studied.
The most common pathologies were: ischemic stroke (37%), intracerebral hemorrhage (17%), and brain tumor (13%). %). The mean length of stay in the ICU was 4.7 days +/- SD 6.6, ranging from 4.3 days for stroke to 11.0 days for a polytrauma patient. The overall mortality found for the neurosurgical patient was 13 per 100, being higher in patients with intracranial hemorrhage (25 per 100). The readmissions and complications of these patients were minimal.