Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Apr;16(4):301-308.
doi: 10.1111/crj.13482. Epub 2022 Feb 24.

Severe COVID-19 pneumonia in an intensive care setting and comparisons with historic severe viral pneumonia due to other viruses

Kiran Dadhwal  1 , Rosalind Stonham  1 , Hannah Breen  2 , Stephen Poole  3 , Kordo Saeed  2   3 , Ahilanandan Dushianthan  1   3   4
Affiliations

Severe COVID-19 pneumonia in an intensive care setting and comparisons with historic severe viral pneumonia due to other viruses

Kiran Dadhwal et al. Clin Respir J. 2022 Apr.

Abstract

Purpose: Severe viral pneumonia is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Recent COVID-19 pandemic continues to impose significant health burden worldwide, and individual pandemic waves often lead to a large surge in the intensive care unit (ICU) admissions for respiratory support. Comparisons of severe SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia with other seasonal and nonseasonal severe viral infections are rarely studied in an intensive care setting.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study comparing patients admitted to ICU with COVID-19 between March and June 2020 and those with viral pneumonias between January and December 2019. We compared patient specific demographic variables, duration of illness, ICU organ supportive measures and outcomes between both groups.

Results: Analysis of 93 COVID-19 (Group 1) and 52 other viral pneumonia patients (Group 2) showed an increased proportion of obesity (42% vs. 23%, p = 0.02), non-White ethnicities (41% vs. 6%, p < 0.001) and diabetes mellitus (30% vs. 13%, p = 0.03) in Group 1, with lower prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)/asthma (16% vs. 34%, p = 0.02). In Group 1, the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio was much lower (6.7 vs. 10, p = 0.006), and invasive mechanical ventilation (58% vs. 26%, p < 0.001) was more common. Length of ICU (8 vs. 4, p < 0.001) and hospital stay (22 vs. 11, p < 0.001) was prolonged in Group 1, with no significant difference in mortality. Influenza A and rhinovirus were the most common pathogens in Group 2 (26% each).

Conclusions: Key differences were identified within demographics (obesity, ethnicity, age, ICU scores, comorbidities) and organ support. Despite these variations, there were no significant differences in mortality between both groups. Further studies with larger sample sizes would allow for further assessment of clinical parameters in these patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; intensive care; viral pneumonia.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Nothing to declare or disclose.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Seasonal variations of severe viral pneumonia ICU admissions for the year between January–December 2019
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Survival probability at Day 28 between critically ill ICU COVID‐19 pneumonia and other viral pneumonia patients
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. The Intensive Care Society Recovery and restitution of ICU. https://www.ics.ac.uk/ICS/Pdfs/COVID-19/Recovery_and_Restitution_of_ICU. Accessed May 28, 2021.
    1. Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre . Case Mix Programme database 2021. Accessed 17.Feb, 2022. available vaia: https://www.icnarc.org/Our-Audit/Audits/Cmp/Reports
    1. Docherty AB, Harrison EM, Green CA, et al. Features of 20 133 UK patients in hospital with covid‐19 using the ISARIC WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol: prospective observational cohort study. BMJ 2020;369:m1985. doi:10.1136/bmj.m1985 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Choi SH, Hong SB, Ko GB, et al. Viral infection in patients with severe pneumonia requiring intensive care unit admission. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2012;186(4):325‐332. doi:10.1164/rccm.201112-2240OC - DOI - PubMed
    1. von Elm E, Altman DG, Egger M, et al. The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) Statement: guidelines for reporting observational studies. Int J Surg. 2014;12(12):1495‐1499. doi:10.1016/j.ijsu.2014.07.013 - DOI - PubMed