Ten things you need to know about intensive care unit management of mechanically ventilated patients with COVID-19

Expert Rev Respir Med. 2021 Mar 18. doi: 10.1080/17476348.2021.1906226. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTThe ongoing pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has posed important challenges for clinicians and health care systems worldwide.Areas covered: The aim of this manuscript is to provide brief guidance for intensive care unit management of mechanically ventilated patients with COVID-19 based on the literature and our direct experience with this population. PubMed, EBSCO, and the Cochrane Library were searched up until 15th of January 2021 for relevant literature.Expert opinion: Initially, the respiratory management of COVID-19 relied on the general therapeutic principles for acute respiratory distress syndrome; however, recent findings have suggested that the pathophysiology of hypoxemia in patients with COVID-19 presents specific features and changes over time. Several therapies, including antiviral and anti-inflammatory agents, have been proposed recently. The optimal intensive care unit management of patients with COVID-19 remains unclear; therefore, ongoing and future clinical trials are warranted to clarify the optimal strategies to adopt in this cohort of patients.PMID:33734900 | DOI:10.1080/17476348.2021.1906226

Source: Expert Review of Respiratory Medicine - March 18, 2021 Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Chiara Robba Denise Battaglini Lorenzo Ball Paolo Pelosi Patricia R M Rocco Source Type: research