American journal of health-system pharmacy : AJHP : official journal of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists
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Am J Health Syst Pharm · Oct 2021
An examination of sedation requirements and practices for mechanically ventilated critically ill patients with COVID-19.
Preliminary reports suggest that critically ill patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection requiring mechanical ventilation may have markedly increased sedation needs compared with critically ill, mechanically ventilated patients without COVID-19. We conducted a study to examine sedative use for this patient population within multiple intensive care units (ICUs) of a large academic medical center. ⋯ Our study confirmed the clinical impression of elevated sedative use in critically ill, mechanically ventilated patients with COVID-19 relative to guideline-recommended sedation practices in other critically ill populations.