Background To describe respiratory coinfections, predictive factors and outcomes in patients requiring mechanical ventilation (MV) with COVID-19. Methods Cohort study, carried out in a Chilean single tertiary Hospital. All patients with COVID-19 admitted to ICU that required MV were included between 1 June and 31 July 2020. Results 175 patients were admitted to ICU and required MV. Of these, 71 patients developed at least one respiratory coinfection (40.6 %). Early coinfections and late coinfections were diagnosed in 1.7% and 31.4% of all patients admitted to ICU respectively. Within late coinfections, 88% were bacterial, 10% were fungal, and 2% were viral coinfections. One third of isolated bacteria were multidrug-resistant. Multivariate analysis showed that the risk for coinfection was 7.7 times higher for patients with history of corticosteroids (adOR = 7.65, CI 95%: 1.04-56.2, p=0,046) and 2.7 times higher for patients that received dexamethasone during hospitalization (adOR=2.69; CI 95%: 1.14-6.35, p=0,024) than patients that were not exposed. For each additional day in MV, the risk of coinfection increases 1.1 times (adOR=1.06; CI 95%: 1.01-1.11, p=0,025). Conclusions Patients in ICU with COVID-19 that require MV had a high rate of coinfections during their stay, but not at admission. Major predisposing factors are the history of corticosteroids, the use of dexamethasone during hospitalization and days in MV.

Features of 50 patients with SARS-CoV2admitted to an intensive care unit and requiring mechanical ventilation Background: Since March, Chile experienced an exponential increase in SARS-CoV2 cases, which led to an almost full occupancy of the intensive care units (ICU). Aim: To characterize patients with SARS-CoV2 disease who required hospitalization in the ICU and invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) in our hospital. Material and Methods: A prospective observational study was performed, which included the first 50 patients, aged 54 ± 13 years (58% men), with SARS-CoV2 disease, with ICU and IMV requirements between March 23 and June 2, 2020. Demographics, comorbidities, symptoms, laboratory and imaging, therapies performed and IMV characteristics were registered. The most relevant outcomes observed were lethality, number of days in the ICU and connection to an IMV. Results: Ninety percent of patients were overweight or obese, 46% had hypertension and many had diabetes mellitus. They had elevated inflammatory parameters and typical patterns of COVID-19 in computed tomography. Most of the patients got protective lung ventilation with a high rate of use of neuromuscular blockade (NMB) and prone position. Antibiotics, hydroxychloroquine, and lopinavir/ritonavir were administered according to the protocol of the institution. Lethality was 16% (8 cases) at the end of this study. Conclusions: The information obtained in this study provides characteristics and early outcomes of hospitalized patients with confirmed COVID-19 and IMV, admitted to the ICU of our center.