Results of the SepsEast Registry to define the Characteristics in Coronavirus Disease in Central-Eastern Europe between March 2020-February 2021: an international, multicentre retrospective study of the SEARCH-COVID-19 Study Group

Background: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic caused unprecedented research activity all around the world but publications from Central-Eastern European countries remain scarce. Therefore, our aim was to characterise the features of the pandemic in the intensive care units (ICUs) among members of the SepsEast (Central-Eastern European Sepsis Forum) initiative.Methods: We conducted a retrospective, international, multicentre study between March 2020-February 2021. All adult patients admitted to the ICU with pneumonia caused by COVID-19 were enrolled. Data on baseline and treatment characteristics, organ support and mortality were collected. Results: Eleven centres from six countries provided data from 2139 patients. Patient characteristics were; median 68, [IQR 60-75] years of age; males: 67%; body mass index: 30.1 [27.0-34.7]; and 88% comorbidities. Overall mortality was 55%, which increased from 2020 to 2021 (p=0.004). The major causes of death were respiratory (37%), cardiovascular (26%) and sepsis with multiorgan failure (21%). 1061 patients received invasive mechanical ventilation (mortality: 66%) without extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (n=54). The rest of the patients received non-invasive ventilation (n=129), high flow nasal oxygen (n=317), conventional oxygen therapy (n=122), as the highest level of ventilatory support, with mortality of 50%, 39% and 22%, respectively. Conclusions: This is the largest COVID-19 dataset from Central-Eastern European ICUs to date. The high mortality observed especially in those receiving invasive mechanical ventilation renders the need of establishing national-international ICU registries and audits in the region that could provide high quality, transparent data, not only during the pandemic, but also on a regular basis.