We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. To learn more, click here. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies. Cookie Policy.

Features Partner Sites Information LinkXpress
Sign In
Advertise with Us

Download Mobile App





New Guidance on Managing COVID-19 Patient Airways to Help Improve Outcome of Respiratory Support and Treatment

By HospiMedica International staff writers
Posted on 03 Dec 2020
Print article
Illustration
Illustration
As the coronavirus pandemic continues and the knowledge about it evolves, a team of researchers has worked to form a consensus on properly managing COVID-19 patient airways.

Since COVID-19 acutely affects the respiratory system, airway management is a significant concern among patients. However, because the virus is new and knowledge about it evolves, clear guidance on best practices remains hard to come by, especially on the topic of airway management. An international research group of experts led by a faculty member at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA, USA) has published an international expert consensus to better facilitate patient treatment amid the pandemic. With enough evidence from experts across the medical field, the experts were able to form a tentative consensus on the use of high-flow nasal oxygen and when tracheal intubation is best performed.

Initial guidelines had actually discouraged the use of high-flow nasal oxygen due to fears of the potential for aerosolization of the virus and infection of health care workers. However, there was no clear evidence that demonstrated using high-flow nasal oxygen increased the likelihood of COVID-19 transmission to health care workers. Since recent studies suggested its benefit to improve outcomes in COVID-19 patients, the experts have recommended that clinicians follow their standard benefit/risk ratio assessment for the care of the patient, themselves. This recommendation comes along with the provision that physicians use as high a level of PPE as possible.

The experts have also suggested guidelines on the timing of tracheal intubation, attempting to parse whether “early” or “late” intubation was better for patients. Some of the studies reviewed by them showed benefits to early intubation, before the disease progressed too much and when it was less hazardous for health care workers. However, there really hasn’t been a consensus, so the experts determined that individual patient conditions should be the main governing factor. Moving forward, as more is discovered about COVID-19, the experts plan to update their guidance.

“We hope that through our work to put this together, health systems will take note and the overall outcome of respiratory support and treatment in COVID-19 patients will improve,” said the lead author Huafeng Wei, MD, PhD, an associate professor of Anesthesiology at Penn Medicine. “We also hope this work will help guide health care workers toward working more safely.”

Related Links:
University of Pennsylvania

Gold Member
Real-Time Diagnostics Onscreen Viewer
GEMweb Live
Gold Member
SARS‑CoV‑2/Flu A/Flu B/RSV Sample-To-Answer Test
SARS‑CoV‑2/Flu A/Flu B/RSV Cartridge (CE-IVD)
Silver Member
Wireless Mobile ECG Recorder
NR-1207-3/NR-1207-E
New
Color Doppler Ultrasound System
KC20

Print article

Channels

Critical Care

view channel
Image: The permeable wearable electronics developed for long-term biosignal monitoring (Photo courtesy of CityUHK)

Super Permeable Wearable Electronics Enable Long-Term Biosignal Monitoring

Wearable electronics have become integral to enhancing health and fitness by offering continuous tracking of physiological signals over extended periods. This monitoring is crucial for understanding an... Read more

Surgical Techniques

view channel
Image: NTT and Olympus have begun the world\'s first joint demonstration experiment of a cloud endoscopy system (Photo courtesy of Olympus)

Cloud Endoscopy System Enables Real-Time Image Processing on the Cloud

Endoscopes, which are flexible tubes inserted into the body's natural openings for internal examination and biopsy collection, are becoming increasingly vital in medical diagnostics. Their minimal invasiveness... Read more

Patient Care

view channel
Image: The newly-launched solution can transform operating room scheduling and boost utilization rates (Photo courtesy of Fujitsu)

Surgical Capacity Optimization Solution Helps Hospitals Boost OR Utilization

An innovative solution has the capability to transform surgical capacity utilization by targeting the root cause of surgical block time inefficiencies. Fujitsu Limited’s (Tokyo, Japan) Surgical Capacity... Read more

Health IT

view channel
Image: First ever institution-specific model provides significant performance advantage over current population-derived models (Photo courtesy of Mount Sinai)

Machine Learning Model Improves Mortality Risk Prediction for Cardiac Surgery Patients

Machine learning algorithms have been deployed to create predictive models in various medical fields, with some demonstrating improved outcomes compared to their standard-of-care counterparts.... Read more

Point of Care

view channel
Image: The PATHFAST hs-cTnI-II high-sensitivity troponin assay has been developed for the PATHFAST Biomarker Analyzer (Photo courtesy of Polymedco)

POC Myocardial Infarction Test Delivers Results in 17 Minutes

Chest pain is the second leading cause of emergency department (ED) visits by adults in the United States, generating over 7 million visits annually. In the event of a suspected heart attack, physicians... Read more
Copyright © 2000-2024 Globetech Media. All rights reserved.