INSTITUTIONAL EXPERIENCE OF ENDOTRACHEAL INTUBATION IN SEVERE COVID-19 PATIENTS AT PKLI&RC

Abstract

Millions of people worldwide have been affected by the Coronavirus disease (SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19) pandemic. Intensive care unit admissions are frequent and some patients with hypoxic respiratory failure need invasive mechanical ventilation. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 22 critically ill patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia who required endotracheal intubation from March 2020 till August 2020 at our institute, a tertiary care government designated center for treating moderate and severely ill COVID patients. Patient’s demographics, clinical features, use of personal protective equipment (PPE) for intubation, intubation process, adverse events and anesthesiologist infection rate was determined. Patients intubated were elderly and comorbidities were common. We successfully intubated all patient using level-3 PPE. Hypoxia, hypotension, arrhythmias and unanticipated difficult airway were common events in peri-intubation period.