Kuwait part of COVID study that finds lying on abdomen doesn’t cut ventilators’ need

Kuwait part of COVID study that finds lying on abdomen doesn’t cut ventilators’ need

KUWAIT: Kuwait participated in an international scientific research study which concluded that lying on the abdomen in intensive care units for COVID-19 patients – one of the components of the treatment protocol – is not positive for reducing the need for ventilators or minimizing death chances, the Ministry of Health announced.

Head of the Department of Anesthesia and ICU at Al-Amiri Hospital Dr Abdulrahman Al-Fares said Tuesday that the study, titled “Effect of Awake Prone Positioning on Endotracheal Intubation in Patients with COVID-19 and Acute Respiratory Failure,” was carried out in cooperation with international research centers from America, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

A team from the ICU at Al-Amiri Hospital and Jaber Al-Ahmad Hospital participated in this study on intensive care patients, examining extent to which they benefit from lying on the abdomen or back and avoid the need for ventilators due to acute lung failure caused by COVID-19, he pointed out. The study, conducted on 400 patients including 49 from Kuwait, was published on Monday in an international scientific journal, he mentioned.

The randomized clinical study divided the patients into two groups, half of them lay on the abdomen for certain hours, and the other half completed the treatment lying on