One year overview of follow-up in a post-covid consultation of critical patients with covid-19

Abstract

<b>Introduction:</b> Long-term clinical management and evolution of a cohort of critical COVID-19 survivors has not been well described. <b>Methods:</b> We report a prospective observational study of COVID-19 patients admitted to ICU between March to August 2020. The follow-up comprised symptoms, pulmonary function test, 6-minute walking test (6MWT, and chest computed tomography (CT). Additionally, questionnaires to evaluate the prevalence of post-covid19 syndrome was performed at 1-year. <b>Results and conclusions:</b> A total of 181 patients were admitted at the ICU during the study period. They were predominantly middle-aged (median [IQR] of 61 [52;67] years old) male (66.9%) with a median of ICU stay of 9 (5-24.2) days. Twenty percent of them died in the hospital and 39 were not able to be included, a final cohort of 105 patients initiated the follow-up. At one year, 32.2% persist with respiratory alterations and needed to continue the follow-up. 10% still had severe lung diffusing (DLCO) involvement (&lt;60%) and 53.7% had a fibrotic pattern on CT. Moreover, patients had a mean (SD) of symptoms of 5.77 (4.66) and 61.3% meet criteria for post-covid syndrome at one-year. During the follow-up 46 patients were discharge and 16 were transfer to others consultations. Other conditions such as emphysema (21.6%), COPD (8.2%), severe neurocognitive disorders (4.1%) and lung cancer (1%) have been identified. A high use of healthcare resources is observed in the first year of these critical survivors after hospital discharge. The study was supported in part by ISCIII (CIBERESUCICOVID, COV20/00110), co-funded by ERDF, “Una manera de hacer Europa” and donation program “Estar Preparados”, UNESPA. Madrid. Spain.