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Copyright of Gaceta Médica de Caracas is the property of Academia Nacional de Medicina and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Archivos Venezolanos de Farmacología y Terapéutica is the property of Archivos Venezolanos de Farmacologia y Terapeutica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objectives. To determine changes in the clinical characteristics and in-hospital outcomes of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in a private hospital in Caracas during two years of the pandemic. Materials and Methods. Retrospective, observational study of patients hospitalized for COVID-19. We evaluated the correspondence between waves of hospital admissions and circulating variants of SARS-CoV-2 in the general population of the Capital District and Miranda state. Results. A total of 1025 patients (569 men and 456 women) were included, with a mean age of 62.9 SD: 16.2 years. Four waves of hospital admissions were identified: first (March-November 2020) 150/1025 (14.6%) cases; second (December 2020 to May 2021) 415/1025 (40.5%) cases; third (June-December 2021) 344/1025 (33.6%) cases; fourth (January-February 2022) 116/1025 (11.3%) cases. The mean age was higher in the fourth wave (first: 64.0±15.7, second: 61.4±15.8, third: 62.1±16.5, and fourth wave: 68.5±16.4), while the proportion of male patients (first: 66.7%, second: 58.8%, third: 50.3%, and fourth wave: 44.8%), patients with severe- critical illness (first: 65.3%, second: 57%, third: 51.7%, and fourth wave: 44.8%), in-hospital stay (first: 9.1±6.0, second: 9.0±7.3, third: 8.8±7.7, and fourth wave: 6.9±5.0 days), ICU admissions (first: 23.3%, second: 15.7%, third: 14.0%, and fourth wave: 11.2%; p=0.027) and mortality (first: 21. 8%, second: 10.7%, third: 9.1%, and fourth wave: 7.1%; p<0.001) progressively decreased over time. Conclusions. The results show lower frequency of severe cases and improvement of in-hospital outcomes in two years of the pandemic. Changes in circulating variants, improvements in disease management and vaccination are likely to have influenced these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]