Recent Advances in Carboxymethyl Cellulose-Based Solid Polymer Electrolytes Incorporating Lithium Salts and Functional Additives: A Systematic Review.

As more elderly patients require intensive care, a growing number of survivors face significant long-term impairments. Specifically, this population frequently suffers from physical impairments including sarcopenia and loss of muscle integrity, cognitive deficits ranging from memory loss to dementia and psychological impairments including anxiety and depression; recognised as post-intensive care syndrome []. Apart from severely diminishing patients´ quality of life, the burden of this syndrome even extends to their families with 30–70 % experiencing long-term distress [,]. Furthermore, the adverse morbidity outcomes lead to increased healthcare utilization post-ICU, including readmissions and institutionalisation []. These challenges underscore the need to develop generally applicable criteria for triage decisions and treatment strategies in the elderly [,]. Currently, triage and treatment selection often rely on individual clinical judgement, and therefore vary mainly according to age and intensive care unit (ICU) capacity [,]. Recent studies have shown that frailty, more than age and comorbidity, might be the most important determinant of survival, physical and cognitive outcomes in the ICU population [, , ]. The frailty approach provides a comprehensive assessment of patient vulnerability, by containing functional capacity, daily activity and social support []. The Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) is at present considered the most appropriate tool for assessing frailty in the ICU setting [, , , ]. Although frailty predicts ICU survival, long-term outcomes in elderly patients, with respect to the progression of frailty and associated risk factors, are still less defined []. This study primarily aims to determine changes in CFS from pre-admission to three and 12 months after ICU in patients ≥65 years of age who require mechanical ventilation. Secondary aims include evaluating how demographics, comorbidities, disease severity, treatment intensity, and baseline CFS influence frailty trajectories and mortality.