Background: Patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) occasionally develop respiratory failure and coagulopathy. We aimed to determine whether coagulation abnormalities at admission and during the course of hospitalization can predict the liberation from respiratory support in critically ill patients with COVID-19 by combining the results of rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM) with standard laboratory tests.
Methods: This single-center, retrospective, observational study included 31 consecutive adult patients with COVID-19 who were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) and who required respiratory support between April 2021 and August 2021. We divided the patients into two groups according to the liberation from respiratory support and analyzed the differences between the groups.
Results: There were 20 patients in the liberation group and 11 in the non-liberation group. There were no significant differences in the overt disseminated intravascular coagulation scores or abnormal counts in the ROTEM parameters at admission between groups, although there was a significant difference in the highest score in the ICU. The Sequential Organ Failure Assessment and sepsis-induced coagulopathy scores were significantly different between both groups at admission and at the time when the highest values were reported during the ICU stay.
Conclusions: High sepsis-induced coagulopathy scores at admission to the ICU were found to be useful predictors of difficulties in the liberation from respiratory support in patients with severe COVID-19. However, increased overt disseminated intravascular coagulation scores and abnormal counts in the ROTEM parameters during the ICU stay were associated with difficulties in the liberation from respiratory support.
Keywords: COVID-19; intensive care units; respiratory insufficiency.