The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic caused unprecedented research activity all around the world but publications from Central-Eastern European countries remain scarce. Therefore, our aim was to characterise the features of the pandemic in the intensive care units (ICUs) among members of the SepsEast (Central-Eastern European Sepsis Forum) initiative. We conducted a retrospective, international, multicentre study between March 2020 and February 2021. All adult patients admitted to the ICU with pneumonia caused by COVID-19 were enrolled. Data on baseline and treatment characteristics, organ support and mortality were collected. Eleven centres from six countries provided data from 2139 patients. Patient characteristics were: median 68, [IQR 60-75] years of age; males: 67%; body mass index: 30.1 [27.0-34.7]; and 88% comorbidities. Overall mortality was 55%, which increased from 2020 to 2021 (p = 0.004). The major causes of death were respiratory (37%), cardiovascular (26%) and sepsis with multiorgan failure (21%). 1061 patients received invasive mechanical ventilation (mortality: 66%) without extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (n = 54). The rest of the patients received non-invasive ventilation (n = 129), high flow nasal oxygen (n = 317), conventional oxygen therapy (n = 122), as the highest level of ventilatory support, with mortality of 50%, 39% and 22%, respectively. This is the largest COVID-19 dataset from Central-Eastern European ICUs to date. The high mortality observed especially in those receiving invasive mechanical ventilation renders the need of establishing national-international ICU registries and audits in the region that could provide high quality, transparent data, not only during the pandemic, but also on a regular basis.

Anesthesiology and Intensive Medicine Medical School Comenius University Bratislava Slovakia

Biomedical Centre Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen Charles University Pilsen Czech Republic

Centre for Translational Medicine Semmelweis University Budapest Hungary

Department Anesthesiology and Intensive Therapy University Hospital Banska Bystrica Banska Bystrica Slovakia

Department for Internal Care Medicine General Hospital Celje Celje Slovenia

Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Therapy University Hospital Nové Zámky Nové Zamky Slovakia

Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Faculty Hospital Nitra Slovakia

Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Therapy Semmelweis University Budapest Hungary

Department of Ananesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine General Hospital Murska Sobota Murska Sobota Slovenia

Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen Charles University Pilsen Czech Republic

Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine University Hospital Pilsen Pilsen Czech Republic

Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Therapy and Pain Management Poznan University of Medical Sciences Poznan Poland

Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Therapy Central Clinical Hospital of the Ministry of Interior and Administration Warsaw Poland

Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Therapy Flór Ferenc Hospital County Pest Kistarcsa Hungary

Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Therapy School of Medicine University of Pécs Pécs Hungary

Department of Anesthesiology Reanimatology Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine Faculty of Medicine University of Rijeka Rijeka Croatia

Department of Clinical Medical Science 2 Faculty of Health Studies University of Rijeka Rijeka Croatia

Division for Pancreatic Disorders Heart and Vascular Center Semmelweis University Budapest Hungary

Division of Cardiology General Hospital Murska Sobota Murska Sobota Slovenia

Faculty of Medicine University of Ljubljana Ljubljana Slovenia

Institute for Translational Medicine Medical School Szentágothai Research Centre University of Pécs Pécs Hungary

Jagiellonian University Medical College Krakow Poland

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