Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: hospital and intensive care unit outcomes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Background: There is little data surrounding the survival of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who are admitted to the critical care unit with exacerbation of symptoms. We conducted a study to measure the in-hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) outcomes of patients admitted with COPD exacerbation, and identified the related prognostic factors.

Method: We performed a retrospective cohort study of patients who were admitted to the adult ICU between January 2006 and July 2011 for COPD exacerbation in King Abdulaziz National Guard Hospital, Al-Hasa, Saudi Arabia.