Corona patients who have been in the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) generally recover “fairly well”, even after a stay in intensive care. Doctors at the university hospital come to this conclusion in an analysis of 81 patients who were treated during the first corona wave. Of these patients, 34 were on the ic. The study looked at how the patients were doing six weeks after discharge from hospital.
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The virus had completely disappeared from their system in all of the patients studied. “Many patients still suffer from fatigue and shortness of breath, but that is really about it,” says internist-infectiologist Anna Roukens. “After six weeks, we were able to conclude in all participants that the inflammation values have normalized and that the heart and lung function are also working properly.”
Long-term psychological complaints were also relatively rare after six weeks. The researchers did observe that there was a risk of depression at 17 percent. This was the case for both the ICU patients and the patients treated only in the nursing ward. Further research should reveal how the Covid patients fared three months after their hospital stay.
Remarkable
The LUMC calls the results “quite striking.” Reports regularly appear in the media about people recovering very slowly from milder infections. “This is therefore not the case with patients who have been admitted to the IC with corona. They generally recover well. This is evident not only from our data, but also from comparable studies from Great Britain, for example, ”says Roukens.
It is known from IC admissions that people can suffer from various physical and psychological complaints months later. This Post Intensive Care Syndrome is also described on the LUMC website. “There may be a weak physical condition, muscle and nerve pain, poor appetite, sleeping problems, nightmares and flashbacks, anxiety, depression, being easily emotional, stress or memory and concentration problems.”
Intensive
“For patients, a recovery process after admission to the IC is quite intensive,” agrees Roukens. The LUMC is now using the insights from the research at the so-called post-corona outpatient clinic. There, people are further guided after their hospital treatment. “We are now mainly focusing on rehabilitation and shortness of breath, so that we can help the patients better,” said the doctor.
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