Should Very Old Patients Be Admitted to the Intensive Care Units?

I read with great interest the article “Demographic Changes in Intensive Care Units in Korea over the Last Decade and Outcomes of Elderly Patients: A SingleCenter Retrospective Study” published in the Korean Journal of Critical Care Medicine in May 2017 [1]. The results indicated that the proportion of inpatients aged 65–79 years admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) increased from 47.9% in 2005 to 63.7% in 2014, and the proportion of ICU-hospitalized patients older than 80 years increased from 12.8% in 2005 to 20.7% in 2014. However, the overall mortality rate did not increase despite a higher mortality rate in the elderly than in the younger patients. These results are worthy and impressively demonstrate the recent changing trends in demographic data of ICU patients in Korea. However, I would like to comment on the following two points.