Mortality of COVID-19 pneumonia with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is extremely high in preliminary reports amounting to 50-60%. Duration of mechanical ventilation in these patients appears to exceed standard duration of mechanical ventilation in non-COVID-19 ARDS patients, suggesting that COVID-19 patients may be particularly at risk for ventilator-induced lung injury. Treatment of COVID-19 ARDS patients is to date mainly supportive with protective mechanical ventilation (ventilation with low tidal volume (VT) i.e. 6 ml/kg of predicted body weight (PBW) and plateau pressure control below 30 cm H2O). Mechanical ventilation with VT reduction below 6 ml/kg PBW in ARDS may reduce alveolar strain, driving pressure and hence ventilator-induced lung injury. Investigators recently performed a multicenter pilot study on 34 moderately severe to severe ARDS patients. This study demonstrated that ultraprotective ventilation with ultra-low VT (≤4.2 ml/kg PBW) without extracorporeal circulation may be applied in approximately 2/3 of the patients, with a 4 cmH2O median reduction in driving pressure, at the price of transient episodes of severe acidosis in approximately 1/3 of the patients. Investigators hypothesized that ultraprotective ventilation without extracorporeal circulation may reduce the mortality at day-90 and increase the number of days free from mechanical ventilation (VFD) at day-60, as compared to protective ventilation.
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A composite score based on all-cause mortality and the number of ventilator free-days (VFD)
Timeframe: Day 90