Late Breaking Abstract - Uneven improvement of functional and ventilatory status of Covid-19 patientsafter discharge from hospital

Introduction: Post-Covid-19 functional status scale (PCFS) is a validated structural tool to estimate the functional status of COVID-19 patients after discharge from hospital. The aim of the study is to evaluate the functional and ventilatory improvement after discharge from hospital and determine the need for rehabilitation. Methods: The patient functional status assessment at discharge and two months later using the PCFS and the ventilatory needs were obtained from the authors’ institutional Hotel Dieu de France university hospital (Beirut, Lebanon) Covid-19 hospitalized patients database. Ventilatory status was collected according to spontaneous ventilation or the need of oxygen requirements, ventilation assistance and tracheostomy. Results: 556 patients hospitalized between March 2020 and March 2021, included 373 males (67.1%) with a mean age of 63 ±17 years. Death rate encountered in 18.5%. 27.8% of the patients had a PCFS score of 0 at discharge and reached 62.7% after 2 months (Table). Patients’ improvement was significant with time but inhomogeneous (r 0.709; p<10-3). 23.3% of patients still needed oxygen at hospital discharge, 0.5% required non-invasive ventilation, and 1.1% had a tracheostomy. Two months later, only 8.4% still needed respiratory assistance (6.9%, 0.5% and 1% respectively with r 0.538; p<10-3). Conclusion: Despite improvement of functional and ventilatory status of severe hospitalized Covid-19 patients over time, a significant number of patients were still functionally dependent and still need respiratory assistance 2 months after discharge.