SevereCOVID-19

Acute respiratory distress syndrome is severe and often fatal acute respiratory failure; characterized by diffuse inflammatory lung injury rapidly progressing to increased pulmonary vascular permeability, increased lung weight, and hypoxemia

COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) is a respiratory tract infection with a newly recognized coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, thought to have originated as a zoonotic virus that has mutated or otherwise adapted in ways that allow human pathogenicity

Most patients with severe COVID-19 experience a bimodal illness, with initial improvement before severe worsening and critical illness. This may be related to the immunologic role in the sepsis seen with COVID-19 ("cytokine storm")

MIS-C (multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children) is a recently described clinical syndrome in children and adolescents, originally recognized in temporal association with a high local prevalence of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019).

MIS-C is a rare and novel disease; therefore, it is not yet possible to make firm evidence based recommendations. Rigorous data to guide most diagnostic and management strategies is lacking and optimal treatment is unknown.

Sepsis is a life-threatening syndrome of organ dysfunction caused by microbial infection in conjunction with a dysregulated host response