Intern Emerg Med . Clinical characteristics and respiratory support of 310 COVID-19 patients, diagnosed at the emergency room: a single-center retrospective study

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Intern Emerg Med


. 2020 Nov 11.
doi: 10.1007/s11739-020-02548-0. Online ahead of print.
Clinical characteristics and respiratory support of 310 COVID-19 patients, diagnosed at the emergency room: a single-center retrospective study


Sandro Luigi Di Domenico ¹ , Daniele Coen ² , Marta Bergamaschi ³ , Valentina Albertini ³ , Leonardo Ghezzi ² , Michela Maria Cazzaniga ² , Valeria Tombini ² , Riccardo Colombo ² , Nicol? Capsoni ³ , Tommaso Coen ⁴ , Katia Barbara Cazzola ² , Marina Di Fiore ² , Laura Angaroni ² , Marco Alberto Strozzi ²



Affiliations

• PMID: 33175297
• DOI: 10.1007/s11739-020-02548-0

Abstract

An ongoing outbreak of pneumonia associated with severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) occurred at the end of February 2020 in Lombardy, Italy. We analyzed data from a retrospective, single-center case series of 310 consecutive patients, with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, admitted to the emergency room. We aimed to describe the clinical course, treatment and outcome of a cohort of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, with special attention to oxygen delivery and ventilator support. Throughout the study period, 310 consecutive patients, with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, attended the Emergency Room (ER), of these, 34 were discharged home directly from the ER. Of the remaining 276 patients, the overall mortality was 30.4%: 7 patients died in the ER and 77 during hospitalization. With respect to oxygen delivery: 22 patients did not need any oxygen support (8.0%), 151 patients were treated with oxygen only (54.7%), and 49 (17.8%) were intubated. 90 patients (32.6%) were treated with CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) or NIV (Non Invasive Ventilation); in this group, 27 patients had a Do Not Intubate (DNI) order and were treated with CPAP/NIV as an upper threshold therapy, showing high mortality rate (88.9%). Among the 63 patients treated with CPAP/NIV without DNI, NIV failure occurred in 36 patients (57.1%), with mortality rate of 47.2%. Twenty-seven (27) patients were treated with CPAP/NIV without needing mechanical ventilation and 26 were discharged alive (96.3%). The study documents the poor prognosis of patients with severe respiratory failure, although a considerable minority of patients treated with CPAP/NIV had a positive outcome.

Keywords: COVID-19; CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure); Epidemiology; NIV (non-invasive ventilation); SARS-CoV-2 infection.