Ventilator-associated pneumonia in patients with SARS-CoV-2-associated acute respiratory distress syndrome requiring ECMO: a retrospective cohort study

Annals of Intensive Care

Table 1 Characteristics of patients

Characteristic	Covid-19 patients (n = 50)	Influenza patients (n = 45)
Age, y^a	48 (42–56)	58 (48–64)
Male sex	36 (72)	28 (62)
Symptom-onset-to-ICU-admission interval, days^a	11 (7–14)	7 (6–10)
Admission SAPS II^a,b	54 (46–65)	71 (59–79)
Admission SOFA score^a,c	12 (10–14)	15 (10–17)
Immunocompromised^d	1 (2)	4 (9)
Documented bacterial coinfection^a	9 (18)	18 (40)
Antimicrobial treatment	50 (100)	45 (100)
Days of antimicrobial treatment	5 (4–6)	4 (2–7)
Antiviral agents
Remdesivir	6 (12)	0
Lopinavir/ritonavir	9 (18)	0
Hydroxychloroquine	20 (40)	0
Oseltamivir	0	45 (100)
Patients with at least one VAP episode^a	43 (86)	28 (62)
Number of VAP episodes per patient^a
1	43 (86)	28 (62)
2	33 (66)	17 (38)
3	20 (40)	8 (18)
≥ 4	11 (22)	3 (7)
Days of ECMO support	21 (10–34)	18 (8–31)
Days on mechanical ventilation^a,b	45 (27–62)	24 (14–45)
ICU length of stay, days^a	48 (34–68)	30 (20–53)
ICU mortality rate, days	17 (34)	18 (40)

Results are expressed as median (IQR) or n (%)
Covid coronavirus-infection disease, SAPS II severe acute physiology score, SOFA sequential organ failure assessment, VAP ventilator-associated pneumonia, ARDS acute respiratory distress syndrome, ECMO extracorporeal membrane oxygenation
^ap < 0.05
^bPossible score, 0 to 163; higher scores indicate greater disease severity; p < 0.0001
^cCalculated from six variables obtained the day of admission, taking into account each parameter’s worst values during the 24 h following admission. Scores range from 0 to 24, with higher scores indicating more severe organ failure and higher mortality risk. Patients with a SOFA score = 10 have a 40% to 50% predicted mean chance of survival; p < 0.01
^dOne patient with Covid-19 pneumonia had previously undergone renal transplantation. Among influenza-pneumonia patients, two were solid-organ-transplant recipients, one had antineutrophil cytoplasm antibody-associated vasculitis, and one received chronic steroid therapy for giant-cell vasculitis