Pregnancy, Poor P/F Ratios,prone Ventilation: Positive Outcomes in Covid 19 Infection

Abstract

A 22 year old pregnant woman was hospitalised with fever, cough, myalgia and dyspnoea at 12 weeks of gestation. Worsening respiratory distress and lack of improvement in peripheral oxygen saturation mandated the need for mechanical ventilation and ICU admission. A nasopharyngeal swab proved positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 by reverse transcription-PCR. In view of poor P/F ratios patient was ventilated intermittently in prone position for approximately 14-16 hours/day. With this strategy, patient was ventilated for 5 days and successfully extubated. Regular foetal assessments revealed that the fetus was unharmed by the intervention. Thus, we recommend timely prone ventilation in pregnant patients with severe covid 19 infection for better outcomes