Predictors of prolonged hospitalization of COVID-19 patients.

PURPOSE: Despite the importance of hospital bed network during the pandemic, there are scarce data available regarding factors predictive of prolonged length of hospitalization of COVID-19 patients. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed a total of 5959 consecutive hospitalized COVID-19 patients in period 3/2020-6/2021 from a single tertiary-level institution. Prolonged hospitalization was defined as hospital stay > 21 days to account for mandatory isolation period in immunocompromised patients. RESULTS: Median length of hospital stay was 10 days. A total of 799 (13.4%) patients required prolonged hospitalization. Factors that remained independently associated with prolonged hospitalization in multivariate analysis were severe or critical COVID-19 and worse functional status at the time of hospital admission, referral from other institutions, acute neurological, acute surgical and social indications for admission vs admission indication of COVID-19 pneumonia, obesity, chronic liver disease, hematological malignancy, transplanted organ, occurrence of venous thromboembolism, occurrence of bacterial sepsis and occurrence of Clostridioides difficile infection during hospitalization. Patients requiring prolonged hospitalization experienced higher post-hospital discharge mortality (HR = 2.87, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Not only severity of COVID-19 clinical presentation but also worse functional status, referral from other hospitals, certain indications for admission, certain chronic comorbidities, and complications that arise during hospital stay independently reflect on the need of prolonged hospitalization. Development of specific measures aimed at improvement of functional status and prevention of complications might reduce the length of hospitalization.

Prevalence and Prognostic Impact of Deranged Liver Blood Tests in COVID-19: Experience from the Regional COVID-19 Center over the Cohort of 3812 Hospitalized Patients.

BACKGROUND: Derangement of liver blood tests (LBT) is frequent in patients with Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We aimed to evaluate (a) the prevalence of deranged LBT as well as their association with (b) clinical severity at admission and (c) 30-day outcomes among the hospitalized patients with COVID-19. METHODS: Consecutive patients with COVID-19 hospitalized in the regional referral center over the 12-month period were included. Clinical severity of COVID-19 at hospital admission and 30-day outcomes (need for intensive care, mechanical ventilation, or death) were analyzed. RESULTS: Derangement of LBT occurred in 2854/3812 (74.9%) of patients, most frequently due to elevation of AST (61.6%), GGT (46.1%) and ALT (33.4%). Elevated AST, ALT, GGT and low albumin were associated with more severe disease at admission. However, in multivariate Cox regression analysis, when adjusted for age, sex, obesity and presence of chronic liver disease, only AST remained associated with the risk of dying (HR 1.5081 and 2.1315, for elevations 1-3 × ULN and >3 × ULN, respectively) independently of comorbidity burden and COVID-19 severity at admission. Patients with more severe liver injury more frequently experienced defined adverse outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Deranged LBTs are common among patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and might be used as predictors of adverse clinical outcomes.