This is a case series of patients with COVID-19 admitted to the largest university hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil, during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Data will be collected prospectively and retrospectively. The main objective is to describe the characteristics of critically ill patients with COVID-19 and their clinical outcomes, and to identify risk factors associated with survival, to inform clinical decision-making and to guide the strategy to mitigate the epidemic, both within each hospital and ICU and in public health management.
In December 2019, an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) attributed to a new
coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2, was described in the Wuhan region of China. This SARS, caused
by SARS-CoV-2 was called COVID-19, spread across the globe, causing millions of cases on all
continents, and thousands of deaths, being characterized as a pandemic.
COVID-19 is characterized by a flu-like syndrome, with symptoms such as fever, cough, myalgia
and gastrointestinal symptoms. Most cases are mild, some even asymptomatic, but approximately
15% of patients have more severe presentation, and approximately 5% are critical (7).
The acute respiratory failure of critically ill patients with COVID-19 has different aspects,
including hypoxemia of difficult treatment, associated in some cases with clotting disorders,
changes in immunity and inflammatory phenomena that pose challenges for the management of
these patients, whose mortality can be high.
The Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina de São Paulo implemented an action plan
that provides for the creation of 200 ICU beds to serve patients with COVID-19. Knowing the
characteristics of critically ill patients with COVID-19 and their clinical outcomes is
extremely important to inform clinical decision-making and to guide the strategy to mitigate
the epidemic, both within each hospital and ICU and in public health management.
Other: risk factors
This is an observational study, so there are no interventions. Investigators will collect data about demographics, comorbidities, and other risk factors such as severity of disease at admission, need for advanced life support, need for invasive mechanical ventilation and ventilator parameters on day1 of mechanical ventilation or ICU admission as potentially association with survival
Other Name: Array
Inclusion Criteria:
- Being admitted to one of the COVID-19 ICUs during the study period
- Suspected or confirmed COVID-19
- Expected ICU stay greater than 24 hours
Exclusion Criteria:
- ICU Readmission during the same hospital stay (patients will be evaluated only during
their first ICU stay)
Hospital das Clínicas -HCFMUSP
Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil
Juliana C Ferreira, MD, Principal Investigator
University of Sao Paulo - hospital das Clínicas da faculdade de medicina da USP (HCFMUSP)