ABSTRACT
Background : A first publication by Tang et in March 2020 reported a high incidence of Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC) in patients who died from SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19) infection. Since then, some studies have questioned this high incidence. Aims : To investigate the incidence of DIC in patients with confirmed diagnosis of severe COVID-19, who required admission to the ICU. Methods : Observational, descriptive, and retrospective study that includes patients older than 18 years with severe COVID-19 infection admitted to the ICU of the “Miguel Servet” University Hospital, between March to November 2020. All clinical and laboratory parameters, as well as the clinical conduct, were requested and carried out according to the usual clinical practice. Results : We included 130 patients 60% men, median age of 67 years (24-79), mortality of 40.8%, 9 cases (6.9%) of established DIC were documented, with impact in survival (Figure 1). Conclusions : Mortality in our series is similar to that reported (40%), the incidence in our series is higher than a recently published metaanalysis (6.9 VS 3%). The low incidence of DIC is interesting, because the high frequency of coagulopathy and elevation of D-dimer in the published series so, this raises the question, if there really is a classic DIC in patients with COVID-19. In our series, none of the patients with DIC presented hypofibrinogenemia. These findings support the theory that coagulopathy in COVID-19 patients is different from classic DIC and requires different management and classification.