238: Pandemic Epidemiology of Covid-19 and Non-Covid-19 Critical Illness in a Resource-Limited Setting

Anesi, George L; Savarimuthu, Stella; Invernizzi, Jonathan; Smith, Michelle J.; Hyman, Robyn; Ramkillawan, Arisha; Eddey, Creaghan; Wise, Robert A.

doi:10.1097/01.ccm.0000906688.16314.14

Cited by 1 publication

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“…A limitation is that our results may not be generalizable to other country settings as we included the data of the Netherlands only, which has a well-equipped healthcare system, abundant resources, and low number of prepandemic ICU beds per capita. Importantly, declines in ICU treatment for non-COVID-19 disease ( 29 ) and other health services due to the pandemic also have struck other countries with fewer resources, likely affecting many more patients in a harmful way ( 21 , 30 , 31 ). Furthermore, patients that did not reach the ICU due to the stricter patient selection during the pandemic could not be included in this study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strain on Scarce Intensive Care Beds Drives Reduced Patient Volumes, Patient Selection, and Worse Outcome: A National Cohort Study*

Brinkman,

de Keizer,

de Lange

et al. 2023

Critical Care Medicine

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Objectives: Strain on ICUs during the COVID-19 pandemic required stringent triage at the ICU to distribute resources appropriately. This could have resulted in reduced patient volumes, patient selection, and worse outcome of non-COVID-19 patients, especially during the pandemic peaks when the strain on ICUs was extreme. We analyzed this potential impact on the non-COVID-19 patients. Design: A national cohort study. Setting: Data of 71 Dutch ICUs Participants: A total of 120,393 patients in the pandemic non-COVID-19 cohort (from March 1, 2020 to February 28, 2022) and 164,737 patients in the prepandemic cohort (from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2019). Interventions: None. Measurements and Main Results: Volume, patient characteristics, and mortality were compared between the pandemic non-COVID-19 cohort and the prepandemic cohort, focusing on the pandemic period and its peaks, with attention to strata of specific admission types, diagnoses, and severity. The number of admitted non-COVID-19 patients during the pandemic period and its peaks were, respectively, 26.9% and 34.2% lower compared with the prepandemic cohort. The pandemic non-COVID-19 cohort consisted of fewer medical patients (48.1% vs. 50.7%), fewer patients with comorbidities (36.5% vs. 40.6%), and more patients on mechanical ventilation (45.3% vs. 42.4%) and vasoactive medication (44.7% vs. 38.4%) compared with the prepandemic cohort. Case-mix adjusted mortality during the pandemic period and its peaks was higher compared with the prepandemic period, odds ratios were, respectively, 1.08 (95% CI, 1.05–1.11) and 1.10 (95% CI, 1.07–1.13). Conclusions: In non-COVID-19 patients the strain on healthcare has driven lower patient volume, selection of fewer comorbid patients who required more intensive support, and a modest increase in the case-mix adjusted mortality.

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