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BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients with acute respiratory failure who experience delayed initiation of invasive mechanical ventilation have poor outcomes. The lack of objective measures to define the timing of intubation is an area of concern. We investigated the effect of timing of intubation based on respiratory rate-oxygenation (ROX) index on the outcomes of COVID-19 pneumonia. METHODS: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study performed in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Kerala, India. Patients with COVID-19 pneumonia who were intubated were grouped into early intubation (within 12 hours of ROX index <4.88) or delayed intubation (12 hours or more hours after ROX <4.88). RESULTS: A total of 58 patients was included in the study after exclusions. Among them, 20 patients were intubated early, and 38 patients were intubated 12 hours after ROX index <4.88. The mean age of the study population was 57±14 years, and 55.0% of the patients were male; diabetes mellitus (48.3%) and hypertension (50.0%) were the most common comorbidities. The early intubation group had 88.2% successful extubation, while only 11.8% of the delayed group had successful extubation (P<0.001). Survival was also significantly more frequent in the early intubation group. CONCLUSIONS: Early intubation within 12 hours of ROX index <4.88 was associated with improved extubation and survival in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.
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Palliative care for patients with chronic non-malignant diseases is a less addressed area. In-hospital care, particularly, critical care of elderly population with advanced organ failure, can lead to poor resource management. ICU beds come under the strained resource category, more so in the backdrop of the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Home-based palliative care ensures better comfort to the patient and their kin, at the same time facilitating better resource utilisation. This approach may also reduce the mental trauma caused by the loss of a dear one. Major hurdles in providing palliative care for the chronically ill are lack of awareness and financial constraints. The need of the hour is enhanced awareness and promotion of the practice of palliative care. A favourable change in government policy and budget allocation will go a long way in achieving this goal. Home-based palliative care paves the way to care for the subset of patients with end-stage organ failure in a more humane manner.
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BACKGROUND: Glottic view differed when assistants provide external laryngeal manipulation (ELM) from right or left side. Objectives were to compare glottic view during direct laryngoscopy with ELM applied by assistant stationed on right side of scopist versus left. Primary outcome was best percentage of glottic opening (POGO) score. Secondary outcome was proportion of patients requiring switch back to initial intervention for best glottic view and intubation. METHODS: With Institutional Review Board and Ethics Committee approval and written informed consent, this randomised cross over trial enrolled participants of American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) grade I-II aged 20-70 years for elective surgery under General Anaesthesia (GA). Study interventions were application of ELM during modified bimanual laryngoscopy by trained assistant on right (ELM-R) and left (ELM-L) sides in each participant as per random sequence. RESULTS: Of the 150 participants, 68 were analysed for study interventions using Wilcoxon matched pairs test. Thirty three participants received interventions first from ELM-R and subsequently from ELM-L, while 35 had interventions vice versa. Median POGO score with ELM-R was 40 (IQR: 32.5, 50) and with ELM-L 30 (IQR: 20, 40). There was 10% difference in POGO score between interventions found to be significant (P < .05). Fifty six out of 68 (82.35%) participants had better POGO score when intervention was from right side. Proportion requiring switch back to initially applied intervention was 66.7% (22 out of 33) with ELM-R and 2.9% (one out of 35) with ELM-L. CONCLUSION: For best glottic view, ELM applied by an assistant by right hand standing on right side of scopist is more effective.
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OBJECTIVE: To assess the efficacy of intervention strategies in improving perioperative anaesthetic documentation. METHODS: This interventional study was conducted at our hospital over a period of 5 months, i.e. from October 2016 to February 2017. The subjects were anaesthetic consultants. The perioperative anaesthetic documentation of patients who received general anaesthesia was studied by retrospectively reviewing 100 patient charts before the application of intervention strategies. Intervention measures included lecture sessions, posters and handouts to highlight the important parameters to be documented. Later, another set of 100 patient charts of cases who received general anaesthesia from the same group of anaesthetic consultants were retrospectively reviewed. The recommendations of the Australia and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists were taken as the gold standard. A point-based scoring sheet was used for evaluation. Data were analysed using Microsoft Excel, and the statistical test used was the Mann-Whitney U Test. RESULTS: Documentation standards were significantly improved in the post intervention group compared to the pre intervention group. Furthermore, documentation scores were lower in emergency cases compared to elective cases in both groups. CONCLUSION: Multimodal intervention strategies resulted in higher perioperative documentation scores, and scores were lower in emergency cases than in elective cases in both groups.
