Utilizing an office based laboratory (OBL) during the COVID-19 pandemic for vascular surgical patients.

COVID-19 pandemic brought new challenges in healthcare including the need to create tiered class recommendations about which types patients to treat urgently and which surgical cases to defer. This is a report of a single center's Office Based Laboratory (OBL) system to prioritize vascular patients and preserve acute care resources and personnel. In reviewing three months of data, it appears that by continuing to provide the urgent care needed for this chronically ill population, the insurmountable backup of surgical procedures is prevented in the operating room once elective surgeries resumed. The OBL was able to continue providing care at the same pre-pandemic rate to a large intercity population.

A cautionary tale of an emergency cerebrovascular procedure in the COVID-19 era.

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has had an impact on system processes, with airway management being significantly affected. A 37-year-old woman diagnosed with stroke was found to have a filling defect at the origin of the right internal carotid artery. She was taken to the operating room urgently for carotid endarterectomy. The procedure was uneventful; however, anaphylaxis developed on extubation, subsequently attributed to sugammadex. Institutional policies and limited resources resulted in delayed reintubation. Fortunately, she did not have lasting deficits, but this highlights the potential of current policies to lead to complications and the need to improve policies to minimize harm.