A descriptive study of the surge response and outcomes of ICU patients with COVID-19 during first wave in Nordic countries
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Background: We sought to provide a description of surge response strategies and characteristics, clinical management and outcomes of patients with severe COVID-19 in the intensive care unit (ICU) during the first wave of the pandemic in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Methods: Representatives from the national ICU registries for each of the five countries provided clinical data and a description of the strategies to allocate ICU resources and increase the ICU capacity during the pandemic. All adult patients admitted to the ICU for COVID-19 disease during the first wave of COVID-19 were included. The clinical characteristics, ICU management and outcomes of individual countries were described with descriptive statistics. Results: Most countries more than doubled their ICU capacity during the pandemic. For patients positive for SARS-CoV-2, the ratio of requiring ICU admission for COVID-19 varied substantially (1.6%–6.7%). Apart from age (proportion of patients aged 65 years or over between 29% and 62%), baseline characteristics, chronic comorbidity burden and acute presentations of COVID-19 disease were similar among the five countries. While utilization of invasive mechanical ventilation was high (59%–85%) in all countries, the proportion of patients receiving renal replacement therapy (7%–26%) and various experimental therapies for COVID-19 disease varied substantially (e.g. use of hydroxychloroquine 0%–85%). Crude ICU mortality ranged from 11% to 33%. Conclusion: There was substantial variability in the critical care response in Nordic ICUs to the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic, including usage of experimental medications. While ICU mortality was low in all countries, the observed variability warrants further attention.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica |
Volume | 66 |
Issue number | 1 |
Pages (from-to) | 56-64 |
Number of pages | 9 |
ISSN | 0001-5172 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica Foundation. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
ID: 305694740