Most comatose patients with COVID-19 recover well ‘but it can take weeks’
A retrospective study shows recovery is often delayed when patients experience lingering hypoxaemia, critical care neurologists say
Recovery of consciousness may take weeks for patients with COVID-19 who have been on a mechanical ventilator and it is slowest after long-duration hypoxaemia, a study shows.
Critically ill patients with COVID-19 seem to take much longer than the average patient to ‘come to’, an observation that has implications for decision-making on life-sustaining therapies, US researchers say.
They reviewed data on 795 patients (mean age 62 years, 49% with obesity) who were hospitalised with severe COVID-19 at three medical centres, in New York and Boston, during the first two surges of the pandemic.
All had been intubated and were on mechanical ventilation for at least six days, during which they were comatose (Glasgow Coma Scale motor score <6).
