The death rate of patients in intensive care reached 31% in three months (end of February and beginning of May).

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PHILIPPE MAGONI / SIPA

According to a study published Tuesday involving the Assistance-Publique / Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) and Inserm teams, the death rate of patients in intensive care reached 31% between the end of February and the beginning of May.

This concerns more than 4,000 patients, mainly in France.

At 90 days, 1,298 out of 4,244 patients admitted to intensive care between February 25 and May 4 had not survived, the study said.

However, this mortality rate improved between the start and the end of the study: it went from 42 to 25%, without knowing whether this is due to a lesser severity of the damage, to a modification of the patient profile or better care for example.

80% of patients intubated and put on a ventilator

The authors also note that "the mortality was higher in the oldest patients, the diabetics, the obese", the immunosuppressed people, those who had the most serious respiratory damage and those who had experienced a short delay between first symptoms and admission to intensive care.

Among the approximately 4,200 patients studied, 63% had to be intubated and put on a ventilator from the day of their admission and 80% in total had to be so at some time or another during their stay, according to this study published in the Intensive Care Medecine journal.

74% men

The 4,244 patients, 74% of them men, included in the study had a median age of 63 years and had been admitted to intensive care for acute respiratory failure secondary to SARS-CoV-2 infection, is He specifies.

They were on average more often obese than the general population.

These patients were distributed in 138 different hospitals in France, Belgium and Switzerland.

56% of patients were admitted to hospitals in the Ile-de-France region.

Longer-term follow-up is necessary

"The severity of these patients coupled with much longer lengths of stay than those observed in patients of the same severity with ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Editor's note) unrelated to COVID-19 may explain the tension in reception capacities of resuscitation services during the first wave, ”commented the AP-HP in a press release presenting the study on Tuesday.

"Longer-term follow-up is now necessary to have a complete description of the prognosis and the sequelae of patients who have had the most severe forms of COVID-19 hospitalized in intensive care", adds the AP-HP.

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