ESICM Talk, episode 8

ESICM Talk is a new podcasts series on noteworthy intensive care topics for your learning!

In this episode, powered by the ICM Journal & ESICM NEXT, Prof Stefan Schaller interviews Dr Brijesh V. Patel, principal investigator of the study Natural history, trajectory, and management of mechanically ventilated COVID‑19 patients in the United Kingdom, recently published in the ICM Journal.

In a cohort of COVID-19 patients treated in the United Kingdom, progressive respiratory failure was increasingly associated with mortality.

Evidence-based triggers for ARDS interventions, in particular prone position, were not implemented, had delayed application, or showed poor responsiveness in a sizeable proportion of patients with progressive hypoxaemia.

How this implementation gap and lack of response to conventional ARDS interventions may have contributed to excess mortality across the pandemic deserves further interrogation.