Outcomes of Critically Ill Pregnant Women with COVID-19 Pneumonia at Rhuh in Lebanon

Abstract

Introduction: Since its declaration, the novel COVID-19 has been the center stage of worldwide concern as an international public health emergency due to its immense morbidity and mortality. Pregnant women are considered the most vulnerable population when encountering a SARS-COV2 infection and so extensive studies regarding risk factors, level of severity as well as maternal & neonatal outcomes are crucial to optimize the approach and management of a pregnant infected female. Methods: This is a case-control retrospective study of women with COVID infection (pregnant and non-pregnant) admitted to ICU in Rafik Hariri Hospital between February 2020 and June 2021. Data were collected from digitized records including demographic characteristics, oxygen requirement, vitals, laboratory results, and imaging, management lines, maternal and neonatal outcomes. The latter was analyzed using SPSS Statistics Version 19.0, Armonk, NY: IBM Corp. Results: No significant difference was found concerning the severity of the disease and its course, length of hospital stay, ICU admission, complications during hospitalization, and treatment dministration. Non-pregnant women did exhibit more chronic illnesses, mainly HTN and DM, presented with more severe hypoxemia, higher ferritin levels, more lung involvement on CT chest on admission, and were primarily given heparin as anticoagulation. Neonatal death was significant in cases of pregnancy termination with a lack of follow-up after discharge. Conclusion: Pregnant women were hospitalized for less severe indications due to controversy on management and scarcity of evidence. No difference in morbidity and mortality between the two groups and further research is indicated for optimization of treatment and prognosis.