Clinical characteristics of critically ill patients with COVID-19

ObjectiveDescribe the clinical and respiratory characteristics of critical patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). DesignObservational and retrospective study over 6 months. SettingIntensive care unit (ICU) of a high complexity hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina. PatientsPatients older than 18 years with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for SARS-CoV-2 were included in the study. Variables of interestDemographic characteristics such as sex and age, comorbidities, laboratory results, imaging results, ventilatory mechanics data, complications, and mortality were recorded. ResultsA total of 168 critically ill patients with COVID-19 were included. 66% were men with a median age of 65 years (58-75. 79.7% had at least one comorbidity. The most frequent comorbidity was arterial hypertension, affecting 52.4% of the patients. 67.9 % required invasive mechanical ventilation (MV), and no patient was treated with non-invasive ventilation. Most of the patients in MV (73.7%) required neuromuscular blockade due to severe hypoxemia. 36% of patients were ventilated in the prone position. The length of stay in the ICU was 13 days (6-24) and the mortality in the ICU was 25%. ConclusionsIn this study of critical patients infected by SARS-CoV-2 in a high-complexity hospital, the majority were comorbid elderly men, a large percentage required invasive mechanical ventilation, and ICU mortality was 25%.