Care for Critically Ill Patients with COVID-19

Care for Critically Ill Patients with COVID-19

Initial reports suggest that COVID-19 is associated with severe disease that requires intensive care in approximately 5% of proven infections. Given how common the disease is becoming, as in prior major severe acute respiratory... read more

Safe Airway Society Principles of Airway Management and Tracheal Intubation Specific to the COVID-19

Safe Airway Society Principles of Airway Management and Tracheal Intubation Specific to the COVID-19

Transmission of COVID-19 is primarily through droplet spread. These droplets are affected by gravity and may cause direct transmission from close contact or contribute to surface contamination (where the virus may remain... read more

Splitting Ventilators to Provide Titrated Support to a Large Group of Patients

Splitting Ventilators to Provide Titrated Support to a Large Group of Patients

COVID-19 can out-strip the number of mechanical ventilators available to us. This has led to interest in using a single ventilator to support multiple patients. This post will review the theory and evidence regarding this... read more

Critical Care and the COVID-19 Outbreak in Italy: Early Experience and Forecast

Critical Care and the COVID-19 Outbreak in Italy: Early Experience and Forecast

There was an immediate sharp increase in ICU admissions from day 1 to day 14. The increase was steady and consistent. Publicly available data indicate that ICU admissions (n = 556) represented 16% of all patients (n = 3420)... read more

Lung Ultrasonography Features of COVID-19 Pneumonia

Lung Ultrasonography Features of COVID-19 Pneumonia

As lung abnormalities may develop before clinical manifestations and nucleic acid detection, experts have recommended early chest computerized tomography (CT) for screening suspected patients. The high contagiousness... read more

COVID-19 Airway Management – The Role of Simulation

COVID-19 Airway Management – The Role of Simulation

Health services around the world are faced with the challenge of preparing for the impact of COVID-19 on their communities as we all prepare for a potential global pandemic. I see a great role for simulation in process... read more

Who Gets the Hospital Bed?

Today, Italy has more than 10,000 cases of the coronavirus. There are now simply too many patients for each one of them to receive adequate care. Doctors and nurses are unable to tend to everybody. They lack machines to ventilate... read more

WHO Declares the Coronavirus Outbreak a Pandemic

The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared the rapidly spreading coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, acknowledging what has seemed clear for some time — the virus will likely spread to all countries on the globe. Director-General... read more

Simple Math Offers Alarming Answers About COVID-19 in US

Simple Math Offers Alarming Answers About COVID-19 in US

Much of the current discourse on the COVID-19 outbreak focuses on comparisons of the total caseload and total deaths with those caused by seasonal influenza. But these comparisons can be deceiving, especially in the early... read more

What If a COVID-19 Patient Needs a Surgery?

What If a COVID-19 Patient Needs a Surgery?

In the week of February 13–19, the World Health Organization reported that Singapore had more cases of COVID-19 than any other country outside of mainland China. We wish to share the protocol that we use in our hospital... read more

Coronavirus Readiness and Community Resilience

Coronavirus Readiness and Community Resilience

It is now clear to public health experts that the novel coronavirus epidemic in Washington State and other parts of the country is accelerating. The time has come for us to work together as a community to minimize the impact... read more

The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History

The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History

The story of the deadliest pandemic in history, a study of the 1918 pandemic, the year’s outstanding book on science or medicine. John M. Barry has had considerable influence on both pandemic policy and flood protection.... read more

Respiratory Support for Patients with COVID-19 Infection

Respiratory Support for Patients with COVID-19 Infection

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected more than 50 countries so far this year. Xiaobo Yang and colleagues described in their single-centered, retrospective, observational study that 52 of 710 patients with confirmed... read more

One Doctor’s Life on the Coronavirus Front Lines

One Doctor’s Life on the Coronavirus Front Lines

Driving one evening in Wuhan, China, last month, Zhang Xiaochun pulled her car to the side of the road. She was on the verge of a breakdown. She'd been working nonstop for days at the center of China's coronavirus outbreak,... read more