large Italian study on ICU patients with COVID just published. this may be the most accurate predictor of COVID in the USA, and it's a bit sobering...(#1/5)
(study: bit.ly/2x07u0G)
(study: bit.ly/2x07u0G)
82% of ICU patients were men, with a median age of only 63. the most common comorbidities seem to reflect metabolic syndrome? (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, coronary disease). of course, without a control group this is *speculative.* (#2/5)
P/F ratios were generally extremely low. however, the median PEEP was only 14cm. 27% of patients were proned. (#3/5)
by the end of the study, only 16% of patients were discharged from ICU. mortality was 26%, but lots of patients remaining in ICU (58%) - so over time mortality will likely climb >>26% (#4/5).
one bit of optimism, thought - among patients discharged from ICU, the median ICU length of stay was 8 days (interquartile length 5-12 days). this suggests that a subset of patients can be extubated fairly rapidly? (#5/5) #AlwaysBeExtubating
