Experts analyzed 2,634 treatment outcomes in New York hospitals. According to them, only 3% of 65 patients who were on mechanical ventilation survived. Some doctors are questioning the use of ventilators in treating people with COVID-19 and are trying to find other treatments.
A large study that looked at treatment outcomes for more than 2,600 patients found an exceptionally high 88 percent mortality rate in New York City and its suburbs among COVID-19 patients treated with mechanical ventilation devices. …
Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, this study is the most extensive analysis to date of COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the United States. Experts studied the results of treatment of patients infected with coronavirus who were admitted to hospitals between March 1 and April 4 at 12 hospitals located in New York and Long Island and are part of the Northwell Health health care system.
According to the data obtained, 553 patients (or 21%) died. However, among 12% of patients who required mechanical ventilation, the mortality rate increased to 88%. This level was especially high among patients over 65 years old who were under artificial ventilation. According to the data obtained, only 3% of them survived. The mortality rate among men was higher than among women.
"The high mortality data for ventilated patients is in line with smaller studies of severely ill patients in the United States," the study said.
Since there are no drugs that have passed the relevant tests, breathing machines are the main option for doctors working in intensive care units with critically ill patients who have been diagnosed with severe pneumonia as a result of infection with COVID-19. At the same time, there are more and more reports that only a few patients are recovering who have been connected to a ventilator. As a result, some doctors are questioning the use of ventilators in treating patients with COVID-19, and they are trying to find methods to treat patients with coronavirus for as long as possible without the use of breathing machines.
Perhaps the mortality rate presented in this study does not provide a definitive picture in this area. This is because the study included only patients for whom the end result is known - that is, those who died or were discharged. At the same time, it did not include patients who are still being treated in hospitals. The results were known for a total of 2,634 patients out of 5,700 hospitalized during the study period.
Experts who participated in the study say they are aware of the debate about when to use ventilators for patients with COVID-19. They note that observation was the main method in this study, so it cannot be used to draw conclusions about how best to use artificial ventilation for patients infected with coronavirus.
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“This study is based on our observations only,” said Karina Davidson, senior vice president of research at Northwell Health. “We cannot argue that if mechanical ventilation was abandoned, there would be a different survival rate.”
Robert Langreth