The Effect of Epidural Analgesia on Quality of Recovery (QoR) after Open Radical Nephrectomy: Randomized, Prospective, and Controlled Trial.

No studies are currently evaluating the quality of recovery (QoR) after open radical nephrectomy (ORN) and epidural morphine analgesia. This was a randomized, prospective, and controlled study that explored the QoR on the first postoperative day after ORN. Eighty subjects were randomized into two groups. The first group received general anesthesia combined with epidural anesthesia and postoperative epidural analgesia with morphine and ropivacaine. The second group received general anesthesia and continuous postoperative intravenous analgesia with tramadol. Both groups received multimodal analgesia with metamizole. The primary outcome measure was the total QoR-40 score. The secondary outcome measures were QoR-15, QoR-VAS, and the visual analog scale (VAS) for pain, anxiety, and nausea. The median difference in the QoR-40 score after 24 postoperative hours between the two groups of patients was 10 (95% CI: 15 to 5), p < 0.0001. The median score and IQR of QoR-40 during the first 24 postoperative hours in the epidural group was 180 (9.5), and in the control group, it was 170 (13). The general independence test for secondary outcomes between groups was significant (p < 0.01). QoR-VAS was correlated with QoR-40 (r = 0.63, p ≤ 0.001) and with QoR-15 (r = 0.54, p ≤ 0.001). The total QoR-40 and QoR-15 alpha coefficients with a 95% CI were 0.88 (0.85-0.92) and 0.73 (0.64-0.81), respectively. There was a significant difference in the QoR between the epidural and the control groups after ORN. The QoR-40 and QoR-15 showed good convergent validity and reliability.

Barotrauma in patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019-retrospective observational study.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus. Although it is known that the COVID-19 acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is associated with higher incidence of pulmonary barotrauma, unique mechanisms causing the aforementioned complication are still to be investigated. The goal of this research was to investigate the incidence of barotrauma among COVID-19 patients treated in the intensive care unit (ICU) and to examine different clinical outcomes among those subjects. Methods: This retrospective observational cohort study included adult COVID-19 patients admitted to ICU from September 1, 2020, to February 28, 2022. All admitted subjects received invasive respiratory support. Subjects were divided into two groups based on occurrence of pulmonary barotrauma. Data were collected from available electronical medical records. Results: In the study period, a total of 900 subjects met inclusion criteria. Pulmonary barotrauma occurred in 88 (9.8%) of them. Subcutaneous emphysema developed in 73 (83%), pneumomediastinum in 68 (77.3%) and pneumothorax in 54 (61.4%) subjects. A small group of subjects developed less common complications like pneumoperitoneum (8 subjects, 9.1%) and pneumopericardium (2 subjects, 2.3%). Survival rate was higher in control than in barotrauma group [396 (48.8%) vs. 22 (25.0%), P<0.05]. There was also a significant difference between two groups in PaO2/FiO2 ratio on admission, duration of non-invasive respiratory support before mechanical ventilation, duration of mechanical ventilation and duration of ICU and hospital stay, all in favour of control group. Conclusions: Development of barotrauma in patients with severe forms of COVID-19 disease and in need of respiratory support is associated with longer ICU and hospital stay as well as lower survival rates at hospital discharge. Further efforts are needed in understanding mechanism in developing barotrauma and finding new prevention and treatment options.

Vitamin D Supplementation and Clinical Outcomes in Severe COVID-19 Patients-Randomized Controlled Trial.

COVID-19 symptoms vary from asymptomatic cases to moderate and severe illness with patients needing hospitalization and intensive care treatment. Vitamin D is associated with severity of viral infections and has an immune-modulatory effect in immune response. Observational studies showed a negative association of low vitamin D levels and COVID-19 severity and mortality outcomes. In this study, we aimed to determine whether daily supplementation of vitamin D during intensive care unit (ICU) stay in COVID-19 patients with severe illness affects clinically relevant outcomes. Patients with COVID-19 disease in need of respiratory support admitted to the ICU were eligible for inclusion. Patients with low vitamin D levels were randomized into one of two groups: the intervention group received daily supplementation of vitamin D and the control group did not receive vitamin D supplementation. In total, 155 patients were randomized: 78 into the intervention group and 77 into the control group. There was no statistically significant difference in number of days spent on respiratory support, although the trial was underpowered for the main outcome. There was no difference in any of the secondary outcomes analyzed between two groups. Our study suggests no benefit in vitamin D supplementation to patients with severe COVID-19 disease admitted to the ICU and in need of respiratory support in any of the analyzed outcomes.

Health-Related Quality of Life of COVID-19 Survivors Treated in Intensive Care Unit-Prospective Observational Study.

Purpose: To investigate the quality of life (QoL) of survivors from severe forms of COVID-19 treated in the ICU. Methods: In this study, we investigated the QoL of patients with severe COVID-19 treated in the ICU from November 2021 to February 2022. In the study period, 288 patients were treated in ICU and 162 were alive at the time of analysis. Of those, 113 patients were included in this study. QoL was analyzed 4 months after ICU admission using the EQ-5D-5L questionnaire administered by telephone. Results: Of the 162 surviving patients, 46% reported moderate to severe problems in the anxiety/depression domain, 37% had moderate to severe problems in usual activities, and 29% in the mobility domain. Older patients had lower QoL in mobility, self-care and usual activities domains. Female patients had lower QoL in usual activities, while male patients had lower QoL in the self-care domain. Patients who spent longer time on invasive respiratory support and those with longer hospital lengths of stay had lower QoL in all domains. Conclusion: Severe COVID-19 reduces HRQoL in a significant number of survivors 4 months after ICU admission. Early recognition of patients at increased risk for reduced QoL could lead to early focused rehabilitation and improved QoL of these patients.

Prognostic Value of Catestatin in Severe COVID-19: An ICU-Based Study.

Catestatin is a pleiotropic peptide with a wide range of immunomodulatory effects. Considering that patients with a severe COVID-19 infection have a major immunological dysregulation, the aim of this study was to evaluate catestatin levels in patients with COVID-19 treated in the intensive care unit (ICU) and to compare them between the fatal and non-fatal outcomes. The study included 152 patients with severe COVID-19, out of which 105 had a non-fatal outcome and 47 had a fatal outcome. Serum catestatin levels were estimated by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in a commercially available diagnostic kit. The results show that catestatin levels were significantly lower in the fatal group compared to the non-fatal group (16.6 ± 7.8 vs. 23.2 ± 9.2 ng/mL; p < 0.001). Furthermore, there was a significant positive correlation between serum catestatin levels and vitamin D levels (r = 0.338; p < 0.001) while there was also a significant positive correlation between serum catestatin levels and growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15) levels (r = −0.345; p < 0.001). Furthermore, multivariate logistic regression showed that catestatin, GDF-15 and leukocyte count were significant predictors for COVID-19 survival. These findings imply that catestatin could be playing a major immunomodulatory role in the complex pathophysiology of the COVID-19 infection and that serum catestatin could also be a predictor of a poor COVID-19 outcome.

Association of the novel CROW-65 risk score and mortality in hospitalized kidney transplant recipients with COVID-19 : A retrospective observational study.

BACKGROUND: Kidney transplant recipients (KTR) are a group of patients with heterogeneous risks for adverse outcomes with COVID-19, but risk stratification tools in this patient group are lacking. METHODS AND PARTICIPANTS: This retrospective observational, hypothesis-generating study included 49 hospitalized adult KTR patients with COVID-19 at the University Hospital of Split (August 2020 to October 2021) and evaluated the performance of novel risk score CROW-65 (age, Charlson Comorbidity Index [CCI] lactate dehydrogenase to white blood cell [LDH:WBC] ratio, and respiratory rate oxygenation [ROX index]). The primary outcome of the study was 30-day postdischarge all-cause mortality. RESULTS: A total of 8 fatal events (16.3%) occurred during the study follow-up. When comparing CROW-65 by survival status, it was significantly increased in patients with fatal event (P < 0.001). Using the Cox proportional hazards regression analysis, the CROW-65 risk score showed statistically significant association with mortality (HR 1.11, 95% CI 1.01-1.23, P = 0.027), while receiving operator characteristics (ROC) showed significant discrimination of all-cause mortality with an AUC of 0.85 (95% CI 0.72-0.94, P < 0.001), and satisfactory calibration (χ2 4.91, P = 0.555 and Harrell's C 0.835). Finally, survival Kaplan-Meier analysis confirmed significantly higher cumulative incidence of mortality with increasing risk score tertiles and curve separation after 13 days (P = 0.009). CONCLUSION: A novel risk score CROW-65 showed significant association with all-cause mortality in KTR yielding important hypothesis-generating findings. Further powered studies should reassess the performance of CROW-65 risk score in this population, including predictability, calibration and discrimination.

Effects of Different Inhalation Therapy on Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia in Ventilated COVID-19 Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

The effect of routine inhalation therapy on ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in mechanically ventilated patients with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has not been well-defined. This randomized controlled trial included 175 eligible adult patients with COVID-19 who were treated with mechanical ventilation at the University Hospital of Split between October 2020 and June 2021. Patients were randomized and allocated to a control group (no routine inhalation) or one of the treatment arms (inhalation of N-acetylcysteine; 5% saline solution; or 8.4% sodium bicarbonate). The primary outcome was the incidence of VAP, while secondary outcomes included all-cause mortality. Routine inhalation therapy had no effect on the incidence of bacterial or fungal VAP nor on all-cause mortality (p > 0.05). Secondary analyses revealed a significant reduction of Gram-positive and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) VAP in the treatment groups. Specifically, the bicarbonate group had a statistically significantly lower incidence of Gram-positive bacterial VAP (4.8%), followed by the N-acetylcysteine group (10.3%), 5% saline group (19.0%), and control group (34.6%; p = 0.001). This difference was driven by a lower incidence of MRSA VAP in the bicarbonate group (2.4%), followed by the N-acetylcysteine group (7.7%), 5% saline group (14.3%), and control group (34.6%; p < 0.001). Longer duration of ventilator therapy was the only significant, independent predictor of any bacterial or fungal VAP in the multivariate analysis (aOR 1.14, 95% CI 1.01−1.29, p = 0.038 and aOR 1.05, 95% CI 1.01−1.10, p = 0.028, respectively). In conclusion, inhalation therapy had no effect on the overall VAP incidence or all-cause mortality. Further studies should explore the secondary findings of this study such as the reduction of Gram-positive or MRSA-caused VAP in treated patients.

The Effect of Epidural Analgesia on Quality of Recovery (QoR) after Radical Prostatectomy.

No studies are currently regarding the quality of recovery (QoR) after open radical prostatectomy (ORP) and epidural morphine analgesia. This was a randomized, prospective, and controlled study that explored QoR on the first postoperative day after ORP. Sixty-one men were randomized into two groups. The first (epidural) group received general anesthesia combined with epidural anesthesia and postoperative epidural analgesia with morphine and ropivacaine. The second (control) group received general anesthesia and continuous postoperative intravenous analgesia with tramadol. Both groups received multimodal analgesia with metamizole. The primary outcome measure was the total QoR-40 score. Secondary outcome measures were: QoR-15, QoR-VAS and the visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain, anxiety and nausea. The median difference in the total QoR-40 score after 24 postoperative hours between the two groups of patients was 2 (95% CI: −3 to 8), p = 0.35. The global multivariate inference test for secondary outcomes between groups was not significant p > 0.05). QoR-VAS was correlated with QoR-40 (r = 0.69, p ≤ 0.001) and with QoR-15 (r = 0.65, p ≤ 0.001). The total QoR-40 and QoR-15 alpha coefficient with 95% CI was 0.88 (0.83-0.92) and 0.83 (0.77−0.89), respectively. There was no difference in the QoR between the epidural and the control group after ORP. The QoR-40 and QoR-15 showed good convergent validity and adequate reliability.

In-Hospital Mortality of COVID-19 Patients Treated with High-Flow Nasal Oxygen: Evaluation of Biomarkers and Development of the Novel Risk Score Model CROW-65.

To replace mechanical ventilation (MV), which represents the cornerstone therapy in severe COVID-19 cases, high-flow nasal oxygen (HFNO) therapy has recently emerged as a less-invasive therapeutic possibility for those patients. Respecting the risk of MV delay as a result of HFNO use, we aimed to evaluate which parameters could determine the risk of in-hospital mortality in HFNO-treated COVID-19 patients. This single-center cohort study included 102 COVID-19-positive patients treated with HFNO. Standard therapeutic methods and up-to-date protocols were used. Patients who underwent a fatal event (41.2%) were significantly older, mostly male patients, and had higher comorbidity burdens measured by CCI. In a univariate analysis, older age, shorter HFNO duration, ventilator initiation, higher CCI and lower ROX index all emerged as significant predictors of adverse events (p < 0.05). Variables were dichotomized and included in the multivariate analysis to define their relative weights in the computed risk score model. Based on this, a risk score model for the prediction of in-hospital mortality in COVID-19 patients treated with HFNO consisting of four variables was defined: CCI > 4, ROX index ≤ 4.11, LDH-to-WBC ratio, age > 65 years (CROW-65). The main purpose of CROW-65 is to address whether HFNO should be initiated in the subgroup of patients with a high risk of in-hospital mortality.

Investigation of a Novel Multicomponent Mycotoxin Detoxifying Agent in Amelioration of Mycotoxicosis Induced by Aflatoxin-B1 and Ochratoxin A in Broiler Chicks.

The present study was designed to determine the efficacy of a novel multicomponent mycotoxin detoxifying agent (MMDA) containing modified zeolite (Clinoptilolite), Bacillus subtilis, B. licheniformis, Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell walls and silymarin against the deleterious effects of Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and Ochratoxin A (OTA) in broiler chicks. A total of 160 one-day-old Ross 308® broiler chicks were randomly allocated in four treatment groups, with four replicates, according to the following experimental design for 42 days. Group A received a basal diet; Group B received a basal diet contaminated with AFB1 and OTA at 0.1 mg/kg and 1 mg/kg, respectively; Group C received a basal diet contaminated with AFB1 and OTA and MMDA at 1 g/kg feed, and Group D received a basal diet contaminated with AFB1 and OTA and MMDA at 3 g/kg feed. Results showed that ingested mycotoxins led to significant (p ≤ 0.05) reduction in body weight and feed conversion from 25 days of age, induced histopathological changes, increased the pH of the intestinal content, and altered the biochemical profile of birds with significantly (p ≤ 0.05) increased aspartate aminotransferase (AST) values (p ≤ 0.05). On the other hand, the supplementation of MMDA significantly (p ≤ 0.05) improved the feed conversion ratio (FCR) during the second part of the study, diminished biochemical alterations, reduced pH in jejunal and ileal content, and E. coli counts in the caeca of birds (p ≤ 0.05). It may be concluded that the dietary supplementation of the MMDA partially ameliorated the adverse effects of AFB1 and OTA in broilers and could be an efficient tool in a mycotoxin control program.