Postintensive care syndrome in COVID-19. Unicentric pilot study. Calm does not come after the storm

Postintensive care syndrome (PICS) is the physical, cognitive or psychiatric deterioration that appears after a critical illness and persists beyond hospital admission. The objective of this study was to describe the prevalence of PICS in the patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) admitted to the intensive care unit of the Consorcio Hospital General Universitario de Valencia.

They benefited from a standardized assessment, addressing health-related quality of life (EuroQol-5D-3L), a physical status (6 MWT, "test up and go" and hand dynamometer), a nutritional assessment (MUST and the Global Subjective Assessment), cognitive impairment (MoCA), mental health disorders (HADS and Davidson Trauma Scale) and pain (visual analogue scale and DN4).

From March to June 2020, 59 patients with SARS-CoV-2 were admitted to our ICU. 29 of these were recruited for the study. The stay in the ICU and the mechanical ventilation time were long (24 days [IQR 12-36], and 18 days [IQR 7-31] respectively). The SOFA upon admission to the ICU was high (3 [IQR 3-5]). Tracheostomy was performed in 52% and pronation in 93%. 90% had some abnormal test. 20% had post-traumatic stress syndrome.

We found that 9 out of 10 survivors of SARS-CoV-2 admitted had at least one PICS alteration at 4-6 weeks from discharge from the Hospital. Six out of 19 patients presented with two or more affected evaluated areas.