Quality of life in survivors after a period of hospitalization in the intensive care unit: a systematic review.

Objective: To assess the long-term, health-related quality of life of intensive care unit survivors by systematic review.

Methods: The search for, and selection and analysis of, observational studies that assessed the health-related quality of life of intensive care unit survivors in the electronic databases LILACS and MEDLINE® (accessed through PubMed) was performed using the indexed MESH terms "quality of life [MeSH Terms]" AND "critically illness [MeSH Terms]". Studies on adult patients without specific prior diseases published in English in the last 5 years were included in this systematic review.