Survival in patients admitted to intensive care units due to COVID-19 in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: One of the problems faced by the health system in different countries due to COVID-19 pandemic is the availability of medical care services in intensive care units (ICU). The objective was to evaluate survival in patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in the ICUs during the period January-April 2021 in the province of Buenos Aires. METHODS: Patients included in the surveillance system who had their correlate of information on percentage of bed occupancy in the ICUs from the general system were considered. With this information, a survival analysis was performed, considering life tables, Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression. The event was death, the 96-day follow-up and the dates of admission, death and discharge within the ICUs as individual periods for each patient. Inpatient capacity of the ICUs was measured through the percentage of bed occupancy at the time of admission. RESULTS: The ICUs with a bed occupancy greater than 80% showed patients with a lower survival curve than those below that figure at the time of admission. DISCUSSION: The differences in average survival were statistically significant, and show two different survival curves at the time the second wave of COVID-19 affected the country.