ICU sedation, delirium & recovery
Determinants of Delayed Recovery of Consciousness After Analgosedation Discontinuation in the ICU: Insights From Patients With COVID-19 Hypoxemic Respiratory Failure
Authors' conclusion
In our cohort, the time to RoC was commonly prolonged beyond that expected from sedation exposures alone.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with COVID-19 critical illness receiving mechanical ventilation and benzodiazepine and/or propofol sedation, Spring-Summer 2020; Massachusetts General Hospital, Weill Cornell Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center
- Participants
- 784 patients
- Exposure
- Early recovery of consciousness (RoC) vs Late RoC
- Outcome
- Time to RoC (primary exposure: time-weighted analgosedative dose at benzodiazepine and/or propofol cessation)
Methodological detailsmulticentre
- Multicentre
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
RoC
Patients with RoC before hospital discharge
73%
Patients achieving RoC who did not do so within pharmacologically plausible sedative elimination times (late RoC)
34%
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Characteristics of late RoC
- Late RoC patients older, with hypoxemia and AKI
Dexmedetomidine as adjunct sedative
- Disproportionately larger incidence of early recovery
Discharge disposition
- Not significantly different between early and late RoC
Original publication
Determinants of Delayed Recovery of Consciousness After Analgosedation Discontinuation in the ICU: Insights From Patients With COVID-19 Hypoxemic Respiratory Failure. Crit Care Med. Published 15 June 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →