Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) refers to the respiratory tract infection caused by the newly emergent coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The present pandemic, declared on the 11th of March 2020, was first recognized in Wuhan city, and rapidly spread throughout China and other countries, including Portugal. Regional anesthesia should be considered whenever surgery is planned for a patient with suspected or confirmed COVID-19, as it minimizes not only airway management, the intervention with the highest risk of aerosolization, but also potential personnel contamination and patient recovery time, while maximizing operation room efficiency. Anesthesia techniques should be aimed at preventing airway manipulation such as endotracheal intubation, which is associated with a higher risk of pulmonary complications in infected patients. These recommendations are structured in pre-, intra-, and post-operative management in suspected or confirmed infected patients with SARS-CoV-2, based in local hospital infection committee recommendations and the most recent literature available regarding regional anaesthesia. They are aimed at anesthesiology personnel, with the main goals being both teamand patient safety. The SARS-CoV-2 virus will be not the last novel virus to trigger global pandemics, so having a well-structured regional anesthesia plan to manage this kind of cases will ensure the best outcome possible to both patients and the perioperative team.

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Streptococcus suis is a Gram-positive, facultative anaerobic bacterium and has its natural reservoir in pigs. Infection by this microorganism usually manifests in humans as meningitis, endocarditis, sepsis, and/or arthritis after contact with pigs or pork. Meningitis is a very common manifestation and Streptococcus suis may be considered its second most common cause. A clinical course may manifest acutely or with a more chronic course. Streptococcus suis is endemic in pork-consuming and pig-rearing countries, but may occur all over the world, especially in individuals with occupational exposure to pigs and/or pork, such as abattoir workers, butchers, and farmers. Most infections are observed in adults without preexisting diseases. We report a case of Streptococcus suis meningitis in a healthy patient with occupational exposure and with an asymptomatic infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, who was admitted to an intensive care unit in a tertiary hospital in the North of Portugal.

Cyanoacrylate injection is widely used to treat hemorrhagic gastric varices. A pulmonary glue embolism is an unusual but potentially fatal complication. We present a case of a 51-year-old man with a history of alcoholic hepatic cirrhosis Child-Pugh B, who had an acute pulmonary embolism with sudden cardiorespiratory collapse due to biological glue injection used for the emergent repair of bleeding gastric varices. After the restoration of respiratory and hemodynamic parameters, he was admitted to the intensive care unit and the pulmonary biological glue emboli were documented with computed tomography scan. A high index of suspicion for this entity is essential in patients submitted to endoscopic sclerotherapy. Some might be asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, while others might present with cardiorespiratory collapse.