Demand for intensive care unit (ICU) services is increasing [1], and at a rate that is higher than the average for all health care services [2]. Increase in treatment and monitoring technology, patients' expectations, and ageing population all contribute to this increased demand for intensive care services [1]. Indeed, intensive care is increasingly being provided to older and sicker patients, whom in the past were not treated in intensive care [3]. Intensive care services accounted for 10% of the US$2.1 trillion total health expenditures on health care in the United States in 2006 [4] and has been estimated to cost more than £700 million in the United Kingdom in 1999 [5]. The cost of intensive care services coupled with increasing demand provides the rationale for improved modelling of outcomes of critically ill patients.

Background: Millions of patients are discharged from intensive care units annually. These intensive care survivors and their families frequently report a wide range of impairments in their health status which may last for months and years after hospital discharge.. Conclusions: Improving care for intensive care survivors and their families requires collaboration between practitioners and researchers in both the inpatient and outpatient settings. Strategies were developed to address the major themes arising from the conference to improve outcomes for survivors and families.

The aim in this literature review is to describe the definitions, denominations, clinical signs and symptoms, explanations, causative factors and interrelationships of the intensive care syndrome discussed since 1950. It was found that there is no agreement about which symptoms should be included in the syndrome, when the syndrome may appear and how many patients may be affected. Furthermore, it is unclear what causes the development of the syndrome; most authors conclude that there are many reasons for it. The syndrome has generally been examined by using a medical or psychological approach, but during the last few years it has also been described and analysed from a nursing care perspective.