Intensive Care Unit Mortality Trends during the First Two Years of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Greece: A Multi-Center Retrospective Study

Abstract

Data on COVID-19 mortality among patients in intensive care units (ICUs) from Eastern and/or Southern European countries, including Greece, are limited. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ICU mortality trends among critically ill COVID-19 patients during the first two years of the pandemic in Greece and to further investigate if certain patients’ clinical characteristics contributed to this outcome. We conducted a multi-center retrospective observational study among five large university hospitals in Greece, between February 2020 and January 2022. All adult critically ill patients with confirmed COVID-19 disease who required ICU admission for at least 24 h were eligible. In total, 1462 patients (66.35% males) were included in this study. The mean age of this cohort was 64.9 (±13.27) years old. The 28-day mortality rate was 35.99% (n = 528), while the overall in-hospital mortality was 50.96% (n = 745). Cox regression analysis demonstrated that older age (≥65 years old), a body mass index within the normal range, and a delay in ICU admission from symptom onset, as well as worse baseline clinical severity scores upon ICU admission, were associated with a greater risk of death. Mortality of critically ill COVID-19 patients was high during the first two years of the pandemic in Greece but comparable to other countries. Risk factors for death presented in this study are not different from those that have already been described for COVID-19 in other studies.