Inhaled Sedation in COVID-19-related Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ISCA): an International Research Data Study in the Recent Context of Widespread Disease Resulting From the 2019 (SARS-CoV2) Coronavirus Pandemics (COVID-19)

The authors hypothesized that inhaled sedation, either with isoflurane or sevoflurane, might be associated with improved clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19-related ARDS, compared to intravenous sedation. The authors therefore designed the "Inhaled Sedation for COVID-19-related ARDS" (ISCA) non-interventional, observational, multicenter study of data collected from the patients' medical records in order to: 1. assess the efficacy of inhaled sedation in improving a composite outcome of mortality and time off the ventilator at 28 days in patients with COVID-19-related ARDS, in comparison to a control group receiving intravenous sedation (primary objective), 2. investigate the effects of inhaled sedation, compared to intravenous sedation, on lung function as assessed by gas exchange and physiologic measures in patients with COVID-19-related ARDS (secondary objective), 3. report sedation practice patterns in critically ill patients during the COVID-19 pandemics (secondary objective).