International journal of clinical practice
-
Int. J. Clin. Pract. · Feb 2021
Observational StudyHydroxychloroquine/Azithromycin treatment, QT interval and ventricular arrhythmias in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.
Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and azithromycin (AZM) are widely used in off-label treatment of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). However, cardiac safety of these drugs is still controversial in COVID-19. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate association of HCQ or HCQ + AZM treatment regimens, corrected QT (QTc) interval and malignant ventricular arrhythmias in hospitalized patients. ⋯ The present study revealed that although HCQ + AZM treatment was independently associated with QTc prolongation, none of patients experienced malignant ventricular arrhythmia or death during treatment. Further prospective studies are needed to determine the exact implications of these drugs on arrhythmias in patients with COVID-19.
-
Int. J. Clin. Pract. · Feb 2021
Postoperative Wound Assessment Documentation and Acute Care Nurses'perception of Factors Impacting Wound Documentation: A Mixed Methods Study.
Wound care documentation is an essential component of best practice wound management in order to enhance inter-disciplinary communication and patient care. However, evidence suggests that wound care documentation is often carried out poorly and sporadically. ⋯ This study indicated that surgical wound assessment documentation was insufficient and inconsistent among nurses. Nurses viewed the wound assessment documentation as unimportant. Therefore, extensive exploration of strategies is required to enhance the quality of wound assessment documentation.
-
Int. J. Clin. Pract. · Feb 2021
Retrospective Analysis of Asymptomatic COVID-19 Patients Presenting to Emergency Department.
In this study, we aimed to investigate the clinical and demographic characteristics of asymptomatic COVID-19 cases incidentally diagnosed at the emergency department. ⋯ Early identification and isolation of asymptomatic patients are of great importance for reducing the speed of propagation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Incidentally diagnosed cases have made us consider that there is a need to increase the number of screening tests. We also believe that healthcare staff should suspect COVID-19 pneumonia in every patient irrespective of presentation type, place importance on the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), and not examine any patient without wearing PPE.