Caractéristiques épidémiologiques et cliniques des patients COVID-19 admis en réanimation à l’hôpital Donka de Conakry, Guinée : étude descriptive des 140 premiers cas hospitalisés

OBJECTIVE: To describe the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit. METHODS: This was a 4-month (from the 12(th) of March to the 12(th) of July) prospective and observational study carried out in the intensive care unit of the COVID-19 Treatment Centre at Donka National Hospital, Conakry, Guinea. RESULTS: During the duration of the study, 6044 patients tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, of whom 140 were admitted to intensive care, i.e. 2.31 %. The average age of the patients was 59 ± 14 years. The majority of patients were male, 79 % (n = 110). Concerning comorbidities, 77 % (n = 108) of the patients had at least one medical comorbidity, mainly hypertension (55 % of cases n= 77) and diabetes (38 % of cases n = 53). Main clinical signs were dyspnea (81 %), physical asthenia (64 %) and cough (60 %). The majority of our patients (91 %) benefited from conventional oxygen therapy. Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) was the most represented complication (38 %). The lethality rate in resuscitation was 25 %. CONCLUSION: The rate of admission of COVID-19 patients to intensive care was relatively low, and it concerned mainly elderly, male patients with at least one comorbidity. The symptomatology was dominated by dyspnea and complications by ARDS with significant mortality.