COVID-19: management in the ICU

Abstract

Patients hospitalised due to infection with SARS-CoV-2 frequently require admission to the ICU for organ support. Most of these admissions are due to acute respiratory failure, often fulfilling the criteria for ARDS. This chapter will review current evidence-based management of this patient population. We discuss how oxygenation can be supported via noninvasive and invasive methods, and describe how invasive ventilation should be set to provide lung protection. We discuss how there is no place for routine antiviral, antibiotic and therapeutic anticoagulation in ICU patients with COVID-19-related ARDS, but there is a place for steroids and immunomodulation via anti-IL-6. Finally, we provide an overview of the complications and long-term consequences of critical illness caused by COVID-19.Copyright © ERS 2021.