TY - JOUR T1 - Acute respiratory distress syndrome due to COVID-19. Clinical and prognostic features from a medical Critical Care Unit in Valencia, Spain JO - Medicina Intensiva T2 - AU - Ramírez,P. AU - Gordón,M. AU - Martín-Cerezuela,M. AU - Villarreal,E. AU - Sancho,E. AU - Padrós,M. AU - Frasquet,J. AU - Leyva,G. AU - Molina,I. AU - Barrios,M. AU - Gimeno,S. AU - Castellanos,Á. SN - 02105691 M3 - 10.1016/j.medin.2020.06.015 DO - 10.1016/j.medin.2020.06.015 UR - https://medintensiva.org/es-acute-respiratory-distress-syndrome-due-articulo-S021056912030245X AB - ObjectiveInformation from critically ill coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients is limited and in many cases coming from health systems approaches different from the national public systems existing in most countries in Europe. Besides, patient follow-up remains incomplete in many publications. Our aim is to characterize acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) patients admitted to a medical critical care unit (MCCU) in a referral hospital in Spain. DesignRetrospective case series of consecutive ARDS COVID-19 patients admitted and treated in our MCCU. Setting36-bed MCCU in referral tertiary hospital. Patients and participantsSARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed by real-time reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay of nasal/pharyngeal swabs. InterventionsNone Main variables of interestDemographic and clinical data were collected, including data on clinical management, respiratory failure, and patient mortality. ResultsForty-four ARDS COVID-19 patients were included in the study. Median age was 61.50 (53.25 – 67) years and most of the patients were male (72.7%). Hypertension and dyslipidemia were the most frequent co-morbidities (52.3 and 36.4% respectively). Steroids (1mg/Kg/day) and tocilizumab were administered in almost all patients (95.5%). 77.3% of the patients needed invasive mechanical ventilation for a median of 16 days [11-28]. Prone position ventilation was performed in 33 patients (97%) for a median of 3 sessions [2-5] per patient. Nosocomial infection was diagnosed in 13 patients (29.5%). Tracheostomy was performed in ten patients (29.4%). At study closing all patients had been discharged from the CCU and only two (4.5%) remained in hospital ward. MCCU length of stay was 18 days [10-27]. Mortality at study closing was 20.5% (n 9); 26.5% among ventilated patients. ConclusionsThe seven-week period in which our MCCU was exclusively dedicated to COVID-19 patients has been challenging. Despite the severity of the patients and the high need for invasive mechanical ventilation, mortality was 20.5%. ER -