Participants
This cohort study was conducted from January 11 to April 10, 2020, at
Shenzhen Third People’s Hospital in Guangdong, China. The Shenzhen Third
People’s Hospital was designated by the Shenzhen municipal government to
be responsible for the treatment of COVID-19 patients in the city since
January 2020. All patients included in this study had
laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 and had received mechanical ventilation
support. Participants were divided into two groups depending on whether
they had been successfully weaned off the ventilator. Weaning failure
was defined by failure of spontaneous breathing trials or a need for
reintubation or non-invasive ventilation, or death within 48 h after
extubation5. Patients in severe type should be consistent with any of
the following items: (1) respiratory rate higher than 30 times / min;
(2) fingertip blood oxygen saturation less than 93% in resting state;
(3) partial arterial oxygen pressure/ fraction of inspiration
oxygen(PaO2:FiO2) less than 300 mmHg. Patients with one of the three
conditions are considered as critical type: Any of the following items:
(1) respiratory failure, and requires mechanical ventilation; (2) shock;
(3) multiple organ failure, which requires intensive care unit
monitoring and treatment.
The
study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Shenzhen Third People’s
Hospital (No.2020-157). Informed consent was obtained before
retrospective data collection. A copy of the written consent is
available for review by the Editor of this journal.