Management of COVID-19 in intensive care units

ABSTRACT

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 had already affected the whole world before the pandemic could be prevented and resulted in challenges to the development of an efficacious drug treatment. Intensive care admission is lower than the SARS and Middle East respiratory syndrome-CoV pandemics, although the rapid development and simultaneous contagion in society resulted in feasibility problems associated with intensive care units. The disease results in severe pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, cardiogenic shock, or multiorgan failure, causing mainly lung and myocardial damage. Decreasing the viral load and providing supportive treatment for organ failures are the main principles of treatment in such patients. One should take care to decrease the risk of transmission of the disease to the stuff providing care and treating patients in the intensive care unit. Precautions should be applied to the greatest extent possible, especially during aerosol-producing interventions.