Coronavirus: Serious illness associated with Covid-19 may be prolonged
Fewer Covid-19 patients are dying in intensive care units, researchers have found, indicating that hospitals are improving treatment for severe forms of the pandemic.
The overall mortality of Covid-19 patients treated in the ICU fell to just under 42% in late May, compared to almost 60% in March. This is according to the first systematic analysis of two dozen studies involving more than 10,000 patients in Asia, Europe and North America.
The rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2, the high workload and the proportion of patients requiring respiratory assistance have placed “unprecedented demand” on intensive care services, researchers wrote in a study published Wednesday in the Anesthesia magazine. Countries in later stages of the pandemic could now cope better, they said.
“This may reflect the rapid learning that has taken place worldwide due to the rapid publication of clinical reports at the start of the pandemic,” wrote the authors, led by Tim Cook, anesthesiologist and critical care physician at Bath, England. “The criteria for admission to intensive care may also have changed over time, for example, with increased pressure on intensive care at the start of the pandemic outbreak.”
Toolbox
The World Health Organization is gathering data from countries to identify the things that reduce mortality, with the goal of creating a treatment toolkit that will allow doctors to provide better care to the full range of Covid-19 patients. . The new study will add to the body of knowledge, said Sylvie Briand, WHO director for global risk preparedness.
“This is crucial information that will help us to refine our mortality reduction strategy,” she said.
The review found that ICU mortality does not differ significantly from region to region, despite apparent variations in treatment and other areas, suggesting that no specific therapy reduces ICU mortality, have the authors said in a statement. In the past month, cheap anti-inflammatory dexamethasone has reduced deaths by one third in patients receiving mechanical ventilation by a third, and there is hope that it will further improve survival, they said.
The serious illness associated with Covid-19 may be prolonged. About one fifth of UK ICU hospitalizations lasted more than four weeks and 9% persisted for more than 42 days. Mortality in intensive care units for Covid-19 is almost double the typical rate of 22% for other viral pneumonias.
“The important message, however, is that as the pandemic has progressed and all of these factors combine, the survival of patients admitted to intensive care with Covid-19 has improved significantly,” said the authors.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
