UDINE. Covid and the very difficult months lived in the trenches by intensive care doctors who fought to save the lives of patients, facing and studying a new enemy, a virus never seen before.
A balance of this experience in intensive care at the Udine hospital led by Dr. Flavio Bassi, professor Tiziana Bove and Dr. Amato De Monte – and in particular of what happened in the second and third wave – was drawn up in these days by the department heads themselves.
Numbers in hand, the doctors have come to a clear conclusion, which should also guide the health strategies of our region in the immediate future: “We believe that it must be strongly emphasized that” healthy “patients were almost absent, that is, those affected only from Covid-19 – says Dr. De Monte -. It can therefore be deduced that a healthy body is able to fight this disease with a greater chance of success ».
“Also based on these data – continues De Monte -, it would be desirable to increase at school level, associations, professional associations, meetings with the population, a capillary information aimed at promoting information that teaches how to make radical changes to our eating habits and of life, raise awareness of prevention in order to lead the population to have a healthier lifestyle.
A physique with a reactive immune system and a healthy standard of living certainly has a better chance of facing the disease without facing the most serious consequences ».
«From the data that emerged in our survey, it is clear that only 12 percent of the deceased patients did not have previous pathologies – adds Dr. Bassi -, while 65% of the patients suffered from two or more pathologies.
Cardiovascular diseases were the most frequently encountered, followed by tumor pathology and those that compromise organs such as the lung, liver and kidneys, without forgetting diabetes ».
«A very unexpected discovery – continues De Monte – was that of having found among Covid patients an incidence of very obese people that we would never have expected in our region.
These are people who reached the weight of 150-180 kilograms, both men and women. It must be borne in mind that in the very obese there is always the presence of diabetes and / or cardiovascular diseases ».
Primary doctors point out that the high incidence of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease is linked to the so-called metabolic syndrome, therefore related to the daily lifestyle.
Smoking, unregulated diet, stress and lack of physical activity play a fundamental role in predisposing the individual to the onset of these pathologies.
The study of Udine doctors also addressed the issue of the organization of intensive care when the so-called second wave occurred.
“The regional strategy for activating intensive care was the same as last spring – said De Monte and Bassi -, first admitting all patients to Udine in order to optimize resources, reduce the use of protective equipment and leave free from Covid the other hospitals in the region, in such a way as to allow the provision of services during normal assistance activities.
The beds in Trieste, Pordenone and Palmanova were then activated in succession. The closure of the Covid intensive care in spring 2020 took place on 30 April with the discharge of the last patient, while the reopening of the first regional Covid intensive care dates back to 23 July 2020, in Udine “.
The maneuvers to upgrade the intensive places in the Central Friuli University Health Authority (Asufc) – it is stated again in the study – have allowed to activate, in the maximum severity phase of the third wave, a total of 46 intensive care beds (36 all hospital in Udine and ten in that of Palmanova), against the 28 set up last spring.
The numbers confirm that the first phase in the region was much less impactful than the following ones.
«In Udine – says Dr. De Monte – last spring 60 patients with an average age of 65 were hospitalized and 10 deaths (16.6%) with an average age of 74 were recorded.
In the second and third phase, however, from July 2020 to April 15 2021, 666 patients were hospitalized in Asufc with an average age of 66.3 years.
As for Covid-related deaths, these were 195 (29% of patients) with an average age of 70.5 years.
Another ten patients died with positive swab but from other causes.
Although these are high numbers, it should be noted that the mortality from Covid in national intensive care reaches peaks well above 40%.
A separate note – concludes De Monte – should be made for the over eighty-year-olds among whom the mortality was instead 55% (32 deaths out of 58 hospitalized patients) ». –
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