Gkoufa Aikaterini, Maneta Eleni, Ntoumas Georgios N, Georgakopoulou Vasiliki E, Mantelou Athina, Kokkoris Stelios, Routsi Christina
First Department of Internal Medicine, Laiko General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 11527, Greece.
First Department of Intensive Care, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 10676, Greece.
World J Crit Care Med. 2021 Sep 9;10(5):278-289. doi: 10.5492/wjccm.v10.i5.278.
In the context of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, it has been reported that elderly patients are particularly at risk of developing severe illness and exhibiting increased mortality. While many studies on hospitalized elderly patients with COVID-19 have been published, limited information is available on the characteristics and clinical outcomes of those elderly patients admitted to intensive care unit (ICU).
To review the available evidence of the clinical data of elderly patients admitted to the ICU due to COVID-19.
We searched for published articles available in English literature to identify those studies conducted in critically ill patients admitted to the ICU due to COVID-19, either exclusively designed for the elderly or for the whole ICU population with COVID-19, provided that analyses according to the patients' age had been conducted.
Only one study exclusively focusing on critically ill elderly patients admitted to the ICU due to COVID-19 was found. Eighteen additional studies involving 17011 ICU patients and providing information for elderly patients as a subset of the whole study population have also been included in the present review article. Among the whole patient population, included in these studies, 8310 patients were older than 65 years of age and 2630 patients were older than 70 years. Clinical manifestations were similar for all patients; however, compared to younger ones, they suffered from more comorbidities and showed a varied, albeit high mortality.
In summary, at present, although elderly patients constitute a considerable proportion of critically ill patients admitted to the ICU due to severe COVID-19, studies providing specific information are limited. The evidence so far suggests that advanced age and comorbidities are associated with worse clinical outcome. Future studies exclusively designed for this vulnerable group are needed.
在2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行的背景下，有报道称老年患者尤其有发展为重症并出现死亡率增加的风险。虽然已经发表了许多关于住院COVID-19老年患者的研究，但关于入住重症监护病房（ICU）的老年患者的特征和临床结局的信息有限。
回顾因COVID-19入住ICU的老年患者临床数据的现有证据。
我们检索了英文文献中已发表的文章，以确定那些针对因COVID-19入住ICU的危重症患者进行的研究，这些研究要么专门针对老年人，要么针对整个COVID-19的ICU患者群体，前提是已根据患者年龄进行了分析。
仅发现一项专门针对因COVID-19入住ICU的危重症老年患者的研究。本综述文章还纳入了另外18项研究，涉及17011名ICU患者，并将老年患者作为整个研究人群的一个子集提供了相关信息。在这些研究纳入的所有患者中，8310名患者年龄超过65岁，2630名患者年龄超过70岁。所有患者的临床表现相似；然而，与年轻患者相比，他们患有更多的合并症，且死亡率虽高但各不相同。
总之，目前，尽管老年患者在因严重COVID-19入住ICU的危重症患者中占相当比例，但提供具体信息的研究有限。目前的证据表明，高龄和合并症与更差的临床结局相关。需要专门针对这一弱势群体进行未来研究。
