Background: We analyzed the causes and results of utilization of critical care services in the special care unit in patients after surgical procedures performed by the hepatobiliary surgical service during a 23-month period.

      Results:
      Thirty-two of 537 patients (6.0%) required postoperative admission

to the special care unit. Twenty-one patients were admitted directly from operating room or from recovery room because of inability to wean from ventilator (n = 10), hypovolemic shock (n = 4), myocardial ischemia or infarction (n = 2), sepsis (n = 2), upper gastrointestinal bleeding (n = 2), and acute renal failure (n =1). Eleven postoperative patients were admitted from floor care for respiratory failure (n = 4), cardiac dysrhythmia or infarction (n = 4), sepsis (n = 2), and upper gastrointestinal bleeding (n = 1). Thirty-eight per cent of patients (n = 12) admitted to the special care unit after surgery died. By multivariate analysis, total postoperative stay in the special care unit that was greater than median total duration of stay of 4.5 days was the only independent predictor of mortality (P = 0.041).

      Conclusions:
      Respiratory failure was the predominant component of all

complications after hepatobiliary surgery. No clinically useful predictors of eventual outcome could be identified.