Articles: pandemics.
-
Meta Analysis
Efficacy of supplemental hemoadsorption therapy on severe and critical patients with COVID-19: an evidence-based analysis.
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has posed a disproportionately high threat to the global health system and social stability. COVID-19 damage can lead to hyperinflammation and tissue damage due to a "cytokine storm," which in turn contributes to an increase in the mortality rate. Extracorporeal hemoadsorption therapy (HAT) in patients with severe COVID-19 may improve organ function and stabilize hemodynamic status; however, the effects of supplemental HAT remain controversial. ⋯ Conclusion: Given the better mortality outcomes, HAT confers clinical benefits to patients with severe COVID-19, which correlated with cytokine removal by HAT. Cytokine adsorption may not provide clinical benefits for patients with severe COVID-19 requiring ECMO and should be used with caution. However, because of the very low quality of evidence, multicenter randomized trials with large sample sizes are required to verify these findings.
-
Critical care medicine · Sep 2023
Early Empiric Antibiotic Use in Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19: A Retrospective Cohort Study.
To investigate temporal trends and outcomes associated with early antibiotic prescribing in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. ⋯ Although treatment of COVID-19 patients with empiric antibiotics has declined during the pandemic, the frequency of use remains high. There is significant inter-center variation in antibiotic prescribing practices and evidence of potential harm. Our findings are hypothesis-generating and future work should prospectively compare outcomes and adverse events.
-
Remote reporting is an important preventive measure against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) for radiology departments; it reduces the chance of cross-infections between coworkers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how the preferred locations that radiologists filed reports from changed in response to COVID-19 by measuring the use of internal teleradiology workstations. ⋯ In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, radiologists used internal teleradiology to report CR and CT/MRI examinations significantly more frequently. In contrast to the predictions of previous studies, the use of internal teleradiology returned to baseline levels after the pandemic was under control.
-
Southern medical journal · Sep 2023
Multicenter Study Observational StudyA Multicenter Observational Study Comparing Virtual with In-Person Morning Reports during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic disrupted how educational conferences were delivered, leaving programs to choose between in-person and virtual morning report formats. The objective of our study was to describe morning reports during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the use of virtual formats, attendance, leadership, and content. ⋯ During the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual morning report formats predominated. Compared with traditional in-person reports, virtual report increased attendance, favored resident leadership, and approached a similar range of patient diagnoses with a greater number of case-based presentations and slides. In spite of these characteristics, all programs returned to an in-person format for morning report as pandemic restrictions waned.
-
This study aimed to better understand the inequitable impact of the pandemic by examining the associations between stay-at-home orders and indoor smoking in public housing, measured by ambient particulate matter at the 2.5-micron threshold, a marker for secondhand smoke. ⋯ Stay-at-home orders likely led to increased indoor secondhand smoke in public housing. In light of evidence linking air pollutants, including secondhand smoke, with COVID-19, these results also provide further evidence of the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. This consequence of the pandemic response is unlikely to be isolated and calls for a critical examination of the COVID-19 experience to avoid similar policy failures in future public health crises.