Critical Care News

ANAHEIM, Calif. — An antimicrobial stewardship initiative involving more than 130 U.S. hospitals has shown promise — particularly when it comes to treating children for an appropriate duration, researchers reported here.

In a cohort of patients with chronic precapillary pulmonary hypertension, the rates of in-hospital mortality for those who contracted COVID-19 were more than 40%, according to a study.

Despite a lower overall mortality rate, lung transplant recipients remain at high risk for severe disease and death from the COVID-19 omicron variant compared with both the general population and other respiratory infections.

Pediatric patients with prior COVID-19 had a higher likelihood of a new-onset type 1 diabetes diagnosis compared with those with other respiratory infections, according to data published in JAMA Network Open.

Treatment with oral favipiravir had a beneficial effect on recovery and mechanical ventilation-free survival among patients younger than 60 years who were hospitalized with COVID-19, researchers reported.

Treatment with vilobelimab reduced mortality at 28 to 60 days in patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia without increasing infections, according to data presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress.

In a new study, use of filtering facepiece class 2 or 3 respirators was associated with an increased risk for airway complications, but most aerosol precautions during COVID-19 were not linked with the same risk.

Increased burden of youth-onset type 2 diabetes during the COVID-19 pandemic led to increased strain on pediatric diabetes health care providers, children and families, according to findings published in The Journal of Pediatrics.

The performance of prognostic models for COVID-19 is modest, but simple predictors like age and the ratio of arterial partial pressure of oxygen to fraction of inspired oxygen may useful as stand-alone predictors, researchers reported.

Patients with COVID-19 who received invasive mechanical ventilation in the ICU had reduced in-hospital mortality within 30 days compared with those who were treated in high-dependency care units, according to an observational study in Japan.