Patient-level critical care trajectories in adults with cystic fibrosis in Türkiye: A seven-year single-center case series.

Background: Critical illness in adults with cystic fibrosis (CF) may involve recurrent intensive care unit (ICU) admissions that admission-level summaries can obscure. We characterized patient-level critical care trajectories among adults with CF in Türkiye. Methods: This retrospective longitudinal case series included 12 adults with CF who contributed 20 admissions to a tertiary ICU between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2025. Patients were the primary unit of analysis; admissions were nested episodes. Analyses were descriptive, without hypothesis testing. Results: Twelve adults (median age, 24.5 years; IQR, 21.8-29.5) accounted for 20 ICU admissions; five patients with recurrent stays accounted for 13 admissions. Acute respiratory failure was the principal indication in 17 admissions (85.0%). Noninvasive ventilation, high-flow nasal oxygen, and invasive mechanical ventilation were used in 14 (70.0%), 13 (65.0%), and 12 admissions (60.0%), respectively. One patient received extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal for 3 days followed by venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for 10 days. Chronic Conclusions: Critical illness was predominantly respiratory and recurrent in a subset of patients. Five individuals accounted for 13 of 20 ICU admissions, demonstrating concentrated critical care burden that admission-level summaries may obscure. Multicenter longitudinal studies using standardized patient- and admission-level definitions are needed to assess these trajectories across healthcare systems.