Epidemiologic Study of Intensive Care Unit Admission in South Korea: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study from 2010 to 2019

We aimed to investigate the trends of intensive care unit (ICU) admissions in South Korea from 2010 to 2019. We included all adult patients (≥20 years old) who were admitted to the ICU during hospitalization from 2010 to 2019 in South Korea. There were 3,517,423 ICU admissions of 2,461,848 adult patients. Of the ICU admission cases, 66.8% (2,347,976/3,517,423) were surgery-associated admissions, and the rate of in-hospital mortality after ICU admission was 12.0% (422,155 patients). The most common diagnoses were diseases of the circulatory system (36.8%) and pneumonia (4%). The 30-day, 90-day, and 1-year mortality rates were 16.0%, 23.6%, and 33.3% in 2010, and these values slightly decreased by 2019 to 14.7%, 22.1%, and 31.7%, respectively. The proportions of continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) use and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support were 2.0% and 0.3% in 2010, and these values gradually increased by 2019 to 4.7% and 0.8%, respectively. Although the age and cost of hospitalization among critically ill patients who were admitted to the ICU increased from 2010 to 2019, the mortality rate decreased slightly. Moreover, the proportions of ECMO support and CRRT use had increased in our South Korean cohort.