2021/09/14 by Jennifer C. Ginestra, Oscar J.L. Mitchell, Oscar Mitchell +2 · 34 citations
Medicine · #ARDS #COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies #Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) #Critical illness #Critically ill #Disease #Infectious disease (medical specialty) #Intensive Care Unit Cognitive Disorders #Intensive care #Intensive care medicine #Intensive care unit #Internal medicine #Intubation #Lung #Medicine #Pandemic #Respiratory Support and Mechanisms #Respiratory failure #Severity of illness #Surgery
paper · open access · doi:10.1146/annurev-med-042420-110629
published in Annual Review of Medicine 73(1), 95-111 (Annual Reviews)
openalex publication_date 2021/09/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges in critical care medicine, including extreme demand for intensive care unit (ICU) resources and rapidly evolving understanding of a novel disease. Up to one-third of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 experience critical illness. The most common form of organ failure in COVID-19 critical illness is acute hypoxemic respiratory failure, which clinically presents as acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in three-quarters of ICU patients. Noninvasive respiratory support modalities are being used with increasing frequency given their potential to reduce the need for intubation. Determining optimal patient selection for and timing of intubation remains a challenge. Management of mechanically ventilated patients with COVID-19 largely mirrors that of non-COVID-19 ARDS. Organ failure is common and portends a poor prognosis. Mortality rates have improved over the course of the pandemic, likely owing to increasing disease familiarity, data-driven pharmacologics, and improved adherence to evidence-based critical care.