What happened to mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients in the UK?

Natural history, trajectory, and management of mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients in the United Kingdom.

In a cohort of COVID-19 patients treated in the United Kingdom, progressive respiratory failure was increasingly associated with mortality. Evidence-based triggers for ARDS interventions, in particular prone position, were not implemented, had delayed application, or showed poor responsiveness in a sizeable proportion of patients with progressive hypoxaemia. How this implementation gap and lack of response to conventional ARDS interventions may have contributed to excess mortality across the pandemic deserves further interrogation.

Speakers:

Prof Stefan SCHALLER. Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Dpt of Anesthesiology and Operative Intensive Care Medicine, Berlin (DE).

Dr Brijesh V. PATEL. Division of Anaesthetics, Pain Medicine & Intensive Care, Department of Surgery & Cancer, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London (UK). Department of Adult Intensive Care, The Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, Sydney Street, London (UK).