Implementation of French Recommendations for the Prevention and the Treatment of Hospital-acquired Pneumonia: A Cluster-randomized Trial.

BACKGROUND: We determined whether an audit on the adherence to guidelines for hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) can improve the outcomes of patients in intensive care units (ICUs). METHODS: This study was conducted at 35 ICUs in 30 hospitals. We included consecutive, adult patients hospitalized in ICUs for 3 days or more. After a 3-month baseline period followed by the dissemination of recommendations, an audit on the compliance to recommendations (audit period) was followed by a 3-month cluster-randomized trial. We randomly assigned ICUs to either receive audit and feedback (intervention group) or participate in a national registry (control group). The primary outcome was the duration of ICU stay. RESULTS: Among 1856 patients enrolled, 602, 669, and 585 were recruited in the baseline, audit, and intervention periods, respectively. The composite measures of compliance were 47% (interquartile range [IQR], 38-56%) in the intervention group and 42% (IQR, 25-53%) in the control group (P = .001). As compared to the baseline period, the ICU lengths of stay were reduced by 3.2 days in the intervention period (P = .07) and by 2.8 days in the control period (P = .02). The durations of ICU stay were 7 days (IQR, 5-14 days) in the control group and 9 days (IQR, 5-20 days) in the intervention group (P = .10). After adjustment for unbalanced baseline characteristics, the hazard ratio for being discharged alive from the ICU in the control group was 1.17 (95% confidence interval, .69-2.01; P = .10). CONCLUSIONS: The publication of French guidelines for HAP was associated with a reduction of the ICU length of stay. However, the realization of an audit to improve their application did not further improve outcomes. CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRATION: NCT03348579.

Hyponatremia is associated with poor outcome in COVID-19.

AIM: Our objective was to describe the impact of hyponatremia on the outcomes of COVID-19 patients [outcomes selected: intensive care unit (ICU) admission, mechanical ventilation or death]. METHODS: Two groups of COVID-19 patients were retrospectively screened on the basis of plasma sodium level at admission: hyponatremic (sodium < 135 mM, n = 92) or normonatremic (sodium ≥ 135 mM, n = 198) patients. Pearson's chi-2 (qualitative variables) and Student's T tests (quantitative variables) were used to compare the two groups. A multiple logistic regression model was used to explore the association between patients' clinical data and outcomes. RESULTS: Hyponatremia was frequent but generally mild. There were more male patients in the hyponatremic group (p = 0.014). Pulmonary lesions on the first thoracic CT-scan performed during hospitalization were significantly more extensive in the hyponatremic group (p = 0.010). ICU admission, mechanical ventilation or death were significantly more frequent in hyponatremic compared to normonatremic patients (37 versus 14%; p < 0.001; 17 versus 6%; p = 0.003; 18 versus 9%, p = 0.042, respectively). Hyponatremia was an independent predictor of adverse outcomes (adjusted Odds-ratio: 2.77 [1.26-6.15, p = 0.011]). CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed an independent relationship between hyponatremia at admission and transfer to ICU, use of mechanical ventilation or death in COVID-19 patients. Hyponatremia may reflect the severity of underlying pulmonary lesions. Our results support the use of sodium levels as a simple bedside screening tool for the early identification of SARS-CoV-2 infected patients at high risk of poor outcome.