Clinical Outcomes and Hospital Resource Utilization Among Patients with Sepsis and COVID-19 Infection: Insights from the United States National Inpatient Sample Analysis, 2020–2022

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Abstract
Background/Objectives: Clinical studies have shown that patients who had sepsis with COVID-19 infection had worse clinical outcomes; however, there is a paucity of data on the association between concurrent COVID-19 infection and outcomes among patients with sepsis. Hence, we conducted a retrospective cohort study using the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database from 2020 through 2022 to evaluate the association between concurrent COVID-19 infection and outcomes among patients with sepsis. Methods: Adult hospitalizations with sepsis were identified using ICD-10-CM codes; hospitalizations with septic shock were excluded, and the remaining cohort was stratified by concurrent COVID-19 infection status. Survey-weighted multivariate regression analysis was performed. Results: Patients with sepsis with concurrent COVID-19 infection had worse outcomes with higher mortality rate (15.6% vs. 5.4%; aOR 3.70; 95% CI 3.62–3.79), higher need for invasive ventilation (13.1% vs. 6.5%) and NIV (non-invasive ventilation) (10.2% vs. 4.9%), higher incidence of acute kidney injury (37.6% vs. 36.7%), acute respiratory failure (57.5% vs. 20.3%), disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) (0.4% vs. 0.3%), cardiac arrest (3.1% vs. 1.5%), acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) (7.9% vs. 0.4%), higher need for renal replacement therapy (4.9% vs. 4.5%), tracheostomy (1.6% vs. 0.6%), extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) (0.2% vs. 0.04%), longer length of hospital stay (10.3 days vs. 7.6 days), and higher total charges ($127,632 vs. $93,735, respectively). Conclusions: The results demonstrate that COVID-19 infection was independently associated with worse clinical outcomes among those hospitalized with sepsis. These results underscore the need for early recognition, aggressive treatment, and targeted therapy in this high-risk clinical group.

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