The role of bronchoscopy in patients with sars-cov-2 pneumonia

Altres ajuts: Sociedad Española de Neumología y Cirugía Torácica (SEPAR, PII 2020). Background The role of bronchoscopy in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a matter of debate. Patients and methods This observational multicentre study aimed to analyse the prognostic impact of bronchoscopic findings in a consecutive cohort of patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. Patients were enrolled at 17 hospitals from February to June 2020. Predictors of in-hospital mortality were assessed by multivariate logistic regression. Results A total of 1027 bronchoscopies were performed in 515 patients (age 61.5±11.2 years; 73% men), stratified into a clinical suspicion cohort (n=30) and a COVID-19 confirmed cohort (n=485). In the clinical suspicion cohort, the diagnostic yield was 36.7%. In the COVID-19 confirmed cohort, bronchoscopies were predominantly performed in the intensive care unit (n=961; 96.4%) and major indications were: difficult mechanical ventilation (43.7%), mucus plugs (39%) and persistence of radiological infiltrates (23.4%). 147 bronchoscopies were performed to rule out superinfection, and diagnostic yield was 42.9%. There were abnormalities in 91.6% of bronchoscopies, the most frequent being mucus secretions (82.4%), haematic secretions (17.7%), mucus plugs (17.6%), and diffuse mucosal hyperaemia (11.4%). The independent predictors of in-hospital mortality were: older age (OR 1.06; p