Table 1.
Demographic, clinical characteristics, hospital history, interventions required by and outcome of 553 closed cases. Data as mean ± Standard Deviation, or numbers (%).
| Recovered | Failure | P value | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patients, n (% of discharged cases) | 454 (82.1) | 99 (17.9) | 0.001 |
| Tranferred to acute care hospitals, n (%) | ——— | 32 (5.8) | ——— |
| Died patients, n (%) | ——— | 67 (12.1) | ——— |
| Age, years | 69.1 ± 14.2 | 78.2 ± 11.2 | 0.001 |
| Patients younger than 60 years, n (%) | 136 (29.9) | 2 (2.0) | 0.001 |
| Male, n (%) | 276 (60.8) | 69 (69.7) | 0.0935 |
| Comorbidities per patient, n | 1.9 ± 1.6 | 3.3 ± 2.2 | 0.001 |
| Referring hospitals | |||
| Symptom onset, days | 6.0 ± 3.4 | 7.1 ± 3.1 | 0.0032 |
| LOS, days | 12.8 ± 9.3 | 13.9 ± 10.3 | 0.2963 |
| Patients on CPAP or NIV, n (%) | 78 (17.2) | 20 (20.2) | 0.4770 |
| Patients on IMV, n (%) | 25 (5.5) | 8 (8.1) | 0.3406 |
| Tracheostomized in SB, n (%) | 12 (2.6) | 1 (1.0) | 0.3373 |
| Tracheostomized under IMV, n (%) | 9 (1.9) | 0 (0.0) | 0.1669 |
| ICS network | |||
| LOS, days | 20.2 ± 13.3 | 18.3 ± 18.4 | 0.1990 |
| Patients under O2 therapy only, n (%) | 290 (63.9) | 74 (74.7) | 0.0363 |
| Maximal FiO2 used, (%) | 0.29 ± 0.12 | 0.60 ± 0.11 | 0.001 |
| Patients on O2 + HFNC, n (%) | 11 (2.4) | 6 (6.0) | 0.0589 |
| Patients on O2 + CPAP or NIV, n (%) | 36 (7.9) | 33 (33.3) | 0.001 |
| CPAP/NIV failure rate, n (%) | 0 (0.0) | 18 (54.5) | 0.001 |
| Discharged to telenursing, n (%) | 93 (20.4) | – | – |
Abbreviations: CPAP: continuous positive airway pressure; FiO2: inspiratory oxygen fraction; HFNC: high flow nasal cannula; ICS: Istituti Clinici Scientifici; IMV: invasive mechanical ventilation; LOS: length of stay; NIV: non-invasive ventilation; SB: Spontaneous breathing. Statistical methods: for continuous variable unpaired t-test and for % proportion test were conducted.