Objective: To describe a cohort of critically ill adult patients suffering from COVID-19, admitted to a pediatric intensive care unit managed by a pediatric intensive care team (ICU-MP).
Patients and method: Retrospective observational study of adults admitted to the ICU-MP due to COVID-19 from May 11 to July 26, 2020. Demographic, clinical, biochemical, ventilatory support characteris tics, and complications were recorded. Disease severity was characterized by Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score (APACHE II) using data from the first 24 hours of admission to the ICU-MP.
Results: Ninety-three patients over 18 years with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 were admitted to the ICU-MP. The median age was 60.3 years (SD 13.9), and 59 (63.4%) patients were male. Eighty-two (88.1%) patients had at least 1 medical comorbidity. The median APACHE II score was 9.4 points (SD 5.6). Fifty-one (54.8%) patients were invasively ventilated, for a median of 13.7 days (SD 17.9). Inotropic support was used in 45 (48%) patients. Thirty-three (35.5%) patients presented acute kidney injury (AKI) and 14 (15.1%) patients received continuous renal replacement therapy. Twenty-nine (31.2%) patients had healthcare-associated infections. The median ICU-MP stay was 10.8 days (SD 11.8). 25 (26.9%) patients died, ten of them (40%) had adequacy of thera peutic effort.
Conclusions: The mortality rate of critically ill patients with COVID-19 is high. Older patients (> 70 years), those who require invasive mechanical ventilation and who develop AKI are at increased risk of death. Although this is not a comparative study, our mortality rate and complica tions seem to be similar to those reported in adult case series.