Covid recovery after ventilator

December 30, 2020 10:08 AM

Looking for actual hard information on the outcomes of ventilators and/or ICU treatment in Covid cases especially:

1. How many people actually recover after having been placed on a ventilator for Covid?
2. How many (what %) of covid patients who are ventilated die on the ventilator?
3. How many people placed on ventilators for Covid did not die nor recover (ie are still in the hospital, or otherwise not considered recovered).

posted by nantucket to Health & Fitness (6 answers total)

peruse the episodes of vincent racaniello's outstanding podcast 'this week in virology'. look for the episodes with dr. daniel griffin. he's a nyc lead clinician in covid treatment. if he's on an episode, he's usually the first guest.

he provides updates, but not those specific statistics. (say 'specific statistics' 10x fast)
posted by j_curiouser at 12:24 PM on December 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

i know he's talked about respirators, but I can't look it up rn.
posted by j_curiouser at 12:25 PM on December 30, 2020

In regards to mortality, this paper's study of 7 hospitals in CT between March and July produced the Take Home Message: Approximately half of the patients on mechanical ventilation due to COVID-19 died from the disease, with greater risk among males and older patients. Obesity was not a significant risk factor for mortality in this specific cohort. There's a further breakdown by several factors -- age, gender, etc -- within the paper.

I've been following Bob Wachter on twitter, and his updates suggest that survival on ventilation has improved dramatically between March and now; his twitter feed is a good read. He wrote a few weeks ago that overall mortality has fallen 60% since June.
posted by Dashy at 1:14 PM on December 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

Of possible interest: I 'follow' patients who have discharged from the hospital after COVID by calling to check in and making sure they get appropriate follow up. Of those who discharge home after an ICU stay for COVID, there are a significant number who end up being re-hospitalized later for worsening respiratory symptoms, some of whom have then died on the subsequent admission. I don't have a percentage or a large enough sample size to even venture an estimated number, but I wonder how that is calculated when estimating post-COVID survival.
posted by latkes at 1:46 PM on December 30, 2020 [3 favorites]

I don't think anyone can give you good answers to your questions because it depends on too many factors, the biggest of which is going to be selection of which patients are appropriate for intubation and intensive care. That will depend on the philosophy of your healthcare system, your society's attitude to end of life care and the demographics of your local population.

The outcome of those placed on ventilators has also varied across 2020 as more is learned about treatments that stop deterioration (so you never get to ITU), and what factors predict poor outcomes (so you don't offer ITU as it is medically futile).

The UK has quite a lot of data publically available. You might find some answers to your questions for people in the UK in this report (pdf)
posted by kadia_a at 3:05 PM on December 31, 2020

Kadia, that link isn’t working for me - do you mean this?
posted by tinkletown at 6:42 PM on December 31, 2020