H1N1 Pandemic – One Year Follow up Study

Objective: We performed a one year follow up case series study to evaluate any residual systemic diseases in the patients who presented to our intensive care unit with H1N1pdm09 infection during the 2010/2011 flu epidemic. Twelve patients were admitted with H1N1pdm09 infection over a period of two months. Most of them had multi organ failure and needed various supports. All needed respiratory support varying from, non invasive ventilation, conventional ventilation and high frequency oscillation with some requiring extracorporeal support. Six patients suffered acute renal failure due to the infection and received renal replacement therapy.

Aim: This is a one year follow up case series study to evaluate any impairment in respiratory, cardiac, renal and neurocognitive function in this cohort of patients, who had suffered and were treated for H1N1 infection.

Study Design: Case Series study.

Methods: We assessed seven patients, one year after they had suffered from H1N1pdm09 infection. They were evaluated for pulmonary, cardiac, renal and neurocognitive function in our clinic. Rest of the five patients were interviewed over phone.

Results: Three of the seven patients had poor pulmonary function, indicating significant parenchymal lung injury. Two had moderate to severe restrictive lung disease. Few patients reported a significant impaired quality of life and cognitive impairment. Five patients had impaired phonological fluency, which could be due to hypoxic brain injury, post H1N1pdm09 ARDS. One of the patients, who had suffered acute renal failure, still had renal impairment.

Conclusion: Though all of these patients had survived and were discharged home, a number of them in this small cohort still suffered from quantifiable sequel of the disease.