Surviving Sepsis Campaign Guidelines on the Management of Adults With Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the ICU: First Update.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic continues to affect millions worldwide. Given the rapidly growing evidence base, we implemented a living guideline model to provide guidance on the management of patients with severe or critical coronavirus disease 2019 in the ICU.
Methods: The Surviving Sepsis Campaign Coronavirus Disease 2019 panel has expanded to include 43 experts from 14 countries; all panel members completed an electronic conflict-of-interest disclosure form. In this update, the panel addressed nine questions relevant to managing severe or critical coronavirus disease 2019 in the ICU. We used the World Health Organization's definition of severe and critical coronavirus disease 2019. The systematic reviews team searched the literature for relevant evidence, aiming to identify systematic reviews and clinical trials. When appropriate, we performed a random-effects meta-analysis to summarize treatment effects. We assessed the quality of the evidence using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation approach, then used the evidence-to-decision framework to generate recommendations based on the balance between benefit and harm, resource and cost implications, equity, and feasibility.
Results: The Surviving Sepsis Campaign Coronavirus Diease 2019 panel issued nine statements (three new and six updated) related to ICU patients with severe or critical coronavirus disease 2019. For severe or critical coronavirus disease 2019, the panel strongly recommends using systemic corticosteroids and venous thromboprophylaxis but strongly recommends against using hydroxychloroquine. In addition, the panel suggests using dexamethasone (compared with other corticosteroids) and suggests against using convalescent plasma and therapeutic anticoagulation outside clinical trials. The Surviving Sepsis Campaign Coronavirus Diease 2019 panel suggests using remdesivir in nonventilated patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 and suggests against starting remdesivir in patients with critical coronavirus disease 2019 outside clinical trials. Because of insufficient evidence, the panel did not issue a recommendation on the use of awake prone positioning.
Conclusion: The Surviving Sepsis Campaign Coronavirus Diease 2019 panel issued several recommendations to guide healthcare professionals caring for adults with critical or severe coronavirus disease 2019 in the ICU. Based on a living guideline model the recommendations will be updated as new evidence becomes available.
Competing Interests: Dr. Evans has disclosed that she is a PI on a multi-center observational cohort study of hospitalized patients with severe acute respiratory infection, funded by the CDC Foundation. Drs. Prescott, Chertow, and Mammen disclosed government work. Dr. Fan received funding from Lung Technologies, MC3 Cardiopulmonary, and Fresenius Medical Care. Dr. Derde’s institution received funding from ZonMw (Den Haag, Europe) grant number 10150062010003, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and from Rapid European COVID-19 Emergency Research response (RECOVER) (Europe, H2020) grant agreement No 101003589, and her institution has agreements with Faron (interferon), SOBI (anakinra), and Abbvie (lopinavir/r) to supply drugs for the above-funded studies. Dr. Du’s institution received funding from the Ministry of Science and Technology for a COVID-19–related study (NCT04244591). Dr. Crowther received funding from Servier Canada, Asahi Kasei, Precision Biologicals, Hemostasis Reference Laboratory, Pfizer, CSL Behring, Diagnostica Stago, and he disclosed that he undertakes significant amounts of both medical malpractice and product work in the general areas of hematology and thromboembolism. Dr. Belley-Cote received funding from CIHR, Roche, and Bayer as a principal investigator for the ACT trial that evaluates hydroxychloroquine, interferon beta, colchicine, aspirin, and rivaroxaban in patients with COVID-19. Dr. Zarychanski received operating grants from CIHR, LifeArc Foundation, Thistledown Foundation, and Research Manitoba for grants related to anticoagulation in COVID-19. Dr. McGreer’s institution received funding from Appili Therapeutics. Dr. Hayden disclosed he is a nonpaid consultant for multiple companies involved in developing COVID-19 countermeasures (Arcturus, Cidara, Gilead, GSK, resTORbio, Regeneron, SAB Biotherapeutics, Takeda, Vir), and he is a DSMB member for CytoDyn. Dr. Martin received funding from serving on a clinical trial data monitoring board. Dr. Antonelli received funding from consulting for Intersurgical and ESTOR. Dr. Waleed Alhazzani is the principal investigator on awake proning trial in COVID-19 COVI-PRONE. Dr. Yaseen Arabi is the principal investigator on a clinical trial for lopinavir/ritonavir and interferon in Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and he was a nonpaid consultant on antiviral active for MERS-coronavirus (CoV) for Gilead Sciences and SAB Biotherapeutics. He is an investigator on REMAP-CAP trial and is a Board Members of the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC). He is a co-investigator on the REMAP-CAP trial and on an awake proning trial in COVID-19 (COVI-PRONE). Dr. Maurizio Cecconi declared consultancy work with Edwards Lifesciences, Directed Systems, and Cheetah Medical: Dr. Lennie Derde is an investigator on REMAP-CAP trial, the NVIC (Dutch National ICU society) chair of Taskforce Infectious Diseases (standing committee), member of ESICM Coronavirus Taskforce (started with this outbreak), and chair of the ESICM Clinical Training Committee; all are unpaid positions. Dr. Laura Evans is the team leader for the critical care section of the NIH COVID-19 management guideline. Dr. Eddy Fan declared receiving consultancy fees from ALung Technologies and MC3 Cardiopulmonary. Dr. Frederick Hayden is a noncompensated consultant to Gilead Sciences, Regeneron, Cidara, Fujifilm, Ridgeback, Merck, Roche/Genentech, GSK, Vir, resTORbio, and SAB Biotherapeutics, and he is a DSMB member for CytoDyn therapeutic clinical trial: Dr. Manoj J. Mammen is an investigator for the U.S. NIH PASSive Immunity Trial for Our Nation (PassItOn) trial: Dr. Greg Martin is a member of the NIH COVID-19 treatment guidelines, principal investigator for COVID-19 diagnostic testing (U.S. NIH RADx program) and has served as a research consultant to Genentech, Grifols, Regeneron and Siemens. Dr. Massimo Antonelli declared consultancy with Toray/Estor and Fisher and Pykel and research grant from GE. Dr. Flavia Machado is member of the executive committee for the CODEX study. Dr. Sheila Nainan Myatra is on the steering committee of the COVID Steroid 2 Trial (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04509973) and the HydrOxychloroquine Prophylaxis Evaluation (HOPE) Trial (CTRI registration No.CTRI/2020/05/025067). Dr Naomi Hammond is on the steering committee of the COVID Steroid 2 Trial (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04509973) and the HydrOxychloroquine Prophylaxis Evaluation (HOPE) Trial (CTRI registration No.CTRI/2020/05/025067). Dr. Emilie Belley-Cote reports grants from Bayer, grants from Roche outside the submitted work. She is a principal investigator for the ACT trial: The remaining authors have disclosed that they do not have any potential conflicts of interest.
(Copyright © 2021 by the Society of Critical Care Medicine and Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)