Características y evolución clínica de los pacientes con diagnóstico de COVID- 19 ingresados en la Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos del Hospital Vicente Corral Moscoso, marzo 2020 - octubre 2021, Cuenca, Ecuador

Abstract

Introduction: The pandemic provoked by the SARS-COV2 virus resulted in a great challenge to health-care systems around the world. Additionally, information about the clinical features and evolution of the resultant disease were lacking in different countries including our own. Objective: To establish the features and clinical outcome in COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU at the “Hospital Vicente Corral Moscoso” during March 2020 to October 2021 in Cuenca, Ecuador. Methodology and Resources/Tools: Descriptive, Cross-Sectional, and Retrospective Research. Demographic variables, clinical outcomes, and patients’ evolution were registered during their admission to ICU from march 2020 to october 2021. Results: 61,4% of the patients were men. Symptoms started to appear within 8±4 days. The most frequent comorbidity was hypertension. The most common symptoms and signs were dyspnea and tachypnea. During their admission, all patients presented hypoxemia. Therefore, they required breathing support. The most common technique used for this purpose was oxygen therapy. Hospitalization overall time was 13 days. Mortality was 36,2% average.Conclusions: The results gathered about clinical features were similar to those described regionally and globally. The mortality rate in our study is underneath the rates described in similar research within our region, but slightly superior to developed countries. This fact illustrates the differences in the health-care system, response capacity, and socio-economic resources.