Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV 2) was identified as a new coronavirus causing pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome. It has become a pandemic, spreading particularly quickly across Europe and the US. Most deaths are related to severe acute respiratory distress syndrome, but other organ failures, such as acute kidney failure and acute cardiac injury, seem also related to the disease. 1 Inflammatory response is highly increased in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection, and inflammation is known to favor thrombosis. High dimerized plasmin fragment D (D-dimer) levels and procoagulant changes in coagulation pathways were reported among patients with severe COVID-19. 2,3 An elevated rate of venous and arterial thrombotic events associated with COVID-19 infection has also been reported. 4,5 This case series reports a systematic assessment of deep vein thrombosis among patients in an intensive care unit (ICU) in France with severe COVID-19. MethodsThis case series was approved by the ethical committee of the Centre Cardiologique du Nord, which granted a waiver of consent because the research presented no risk of harm and required no procedures for which consent is normally required outside a research context. This study followed the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) reporting guideline. Patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia were admitted to our ICU located in the suburban Paris area from mid-March 2020 to the beginning of April 2020. All patients had acute respiratory distress syndrome according to the Berlin definition and required mechanical ventilation.We prospectively performed a venous ultrasonogram of the inferior limbs for all patients at admission to our ICU, considering previous data that showed increased levels of inflammatory markers, preliminary reports from the intensive care community signaling frequent events of deep vein thrombosis in ICU patients with COVID-19 at the time we received our first patients, and the high rate of deep vein thrombosis found among the first patients with COVID-19 admitted to our unit.Considering the high prevalence of venous thrombosis at admission, we systematically repeated venous ultrasonography after 48 hours if the first examination returned normal results. As recommended, all patients received anticoagulant prophylaxis at hospital admission. Statistical analyses were conducted in Prism version 5.0 (GraphPad) and Excel 365 (Microsoft Corp). Statistical significance was set at P < .05, and all tests were 2-tailed. ResultsA total of 34 consecutive patients were included in this study. COVID-19 diagnosis was confirmed with polymerase chain reaction on nasopharyngeal swabs of 26 patients (76%); 8 patients (24%) had a negative result on polymerase chain reaction but had a typical pattern of COVID-19 pneumonia on chest computed tomography scan. Mean (SD) age was 62.2 (8.6) years, and 25 patients (78%) were men. Major comorbidities were diabetes (15 [44%]), hypertension (13 [38%]), and o...

No abstract

In a population of patients >or=75 years old, very old age is not directly associated with ICU mortality. After ICU discharge, deaths occurred predominantly during the first 3 months: age and prior limitation of activity were associated with the risk of dying.

The aim of this study was to describe the features of a large cohort of patients with postoperative mediastinitis, with particular regard to Gram-negative bacteria (GNB), and assess their outcome. This bicentric retrospective cohort included all patients who were hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit with mediastinitis after cardiac surgery during a 9-year period. Three hundred and nine patients developed a mediastinitis with a mean age of 65 years and a mean standard Euroscore of six points. Ninety-one patients (29.4%) developed a GNB mediastinitis (GNBm). Of the 364 pathogens involved, 103 GNB were identified. GNBm were more frequently polymicrobial (44% versus 3.2%; p <0.001). Being female was the sole independent risk factor of GNBm in multivariate analysis. Initial antimicrobial therapy was significantly more frequently inappropriate with GNBm compared with other microorganisms (24.6% versus 1.9%; p <0.001). Independent risk factors for inappropriateness of initial antimicrobial treatment were GNBm (OR = 8.58, 95%CI 2.53-29.02, p 0.0006), and polymicrobial mediastinitis (OR = 4.52, 95%CI 1.68-12.12, p 0.0028). GNBm were associated with more drainage failure, secondary infection, need for prolonged mechanical ventilation and/or use of vasopressors. Thirty-day hospital mortality was significantly higher with GNBm (31.9 % versus 17.0%; p 0.004). GNBm was identified as an independent risk factor of hospital mortality (OR = 2.31, 95%CI 1.16-4.61, p 0.0179).