Articles: coronavirus.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically impacted healthcare provision in the UK and burns services have had to adapt to ensure the continuity of a safe care. As we return to "normality" we reflect on lessons learnt from our response to this pandemic. A service evaluation was performed from patient notes between March 23rd and May 8th 2020 and an anonymous survey given to patients attending outpatient appointments. 258 patients were referred to our burns service and 148 patients completed the survey. ⋯ The outreach team treated 22 patients. During the pandemic telemedicine has improved the efficiency of outpatient burn care and outreach nurses have enabled treatment of vulnerable patients. More must be done to raise public awareness of preventable causes of burn injury and to reassure them to seek help when burns occur.
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Journal of neurosurgery · Nov 2021
Suction mask device: a simple, inexpensive, and effective method of reducing spread of aerosolized particles during endoscopic endonasal surgery in the era of COVID-19.
Aerosol-generating procedures, including endoscopic endonasal surgery (EES), are a major risk for physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic. Techniques for reducing aerosolization and risk of transmission of COVID-19 during these procedures would be valuable to the neurosurgical community. The authors aimed to simulate the generation of small-particle aerosols during EES and craniectomy in order to develop methods to reduce the spread of aerosolized particles, and to test the effectiveness of these methods. ⋯ The suction mask device is a simple and effective means of reducing aerosol release during EES, and it could potentially be used during mastoidectomies. This could be a valuable tool to reduce the risk of procedure-associated viral transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Rev Assoc Med Bras (1992) · Nov 2021
Observational StudyReadmission rates of patients with COVID-19 after hospital discharge.
The purpose of this study was to inspect return and readmission reasons and rates of discharged patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). ⋯ Return rate of patients to hospital after discharge with COVID-19 was comparatively high, but readmissions to hospital and mortality rate were low. Comparatively, the higher rate of return to hospital within 30 days of discharge was thought to be resulting from prolonged signs and symptoms related to COVID-19. Since COVID-19 is a new and enigmatic disease and its long-term effects still need to be elucidated, long-term follow-ups of discharged patients will be adequate.
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Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) impacted medical education and led to the significant modification or suspension of clinical clerkships and rotations. ⋯ To manage with the restrictions caused by COVID-19 pandemic, we designed an alternative approach to a traditional surgical clerkship that minimized the risk of exposure and used online learning tools to navigate scheduling challenges. This curriculum enabled students to complete their clinical rotation objectives and outcomes while maintaining program standards. Furthermore, this approach provided a number of benefits, which medical schools should consider adopting the model into practice even in a post-pandemic setting.
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Mayo Clinic proceedings · Nov 2021
SARS-CoV-2 Testing Before International Airline Travel, December 2020 to May 2021.
Although there have been several case reports and simulation models of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission associated with air travel, there are limited data to guide testing strategy to minimize the risk of SARS-CoV-2 exposure and transmission onboard commercial aircraft. Among 9853 passengers with a negative SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction test performed within 72 hours of departure from December 2020 through May 2021, five (0.05%) passengers with active SARS-CoV-2 infection were identified with rapid antigen tests and confirmed with rapid molecular test performed before and after an international flight from the United States to Italy. This translates to a case detection rate of 1 per 1970 travelers during a time of high prevalence of active infection in the United States. A negative molecular test for SARS-CoV-2 within 72 hours of international airline departure results in a low probability of active infection identified on antigen testing during commercial airline flight.