Novel coronavirus (COVID-19): Its implications for anesthesia

Abstract

Once again in the same decade, global health delivery systems are facing with the daunting challenge of another variant of Coronavirus (COVID-19). Over the last 20 years at least six different variants of coronavirus have emerged. Infections caused by these viruses mainly cause life threatening respiratory implications. The recent outbreak of a novel Coronavirus in Wuhan, China has been labelled as public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). Previous experiences of Coronavirus outbreaks have shown that health care workers are at a high risk of acquiring this infection. Anesthesiologists, are particularly vulnerable due to their frequent exposure to infected respiratory secretions. Therefore, to minimize the transmission of nCoV-2019 infection, proper infection control measures like correct workplace practices, appropriate usage of personal protective equipment, airborne and droplet precautions are mandatory while managing a suspected case of infected patient.
 Citation: Bashir MA, Durrani RS. Novel coronavirus (COVID-19): Its implications for anesthesia. Anaesth pain intensive care 2020;24(1):
 DOI: https://doi.org/10.35975/apic.v24i1.

COVID-19 pandemic: An intensivist’s perspective

“…The risk factors identified to be associated with increased mortality in COVID-19 patients, have been age over 50 y, history of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, morbid obesity, immunocompromise and male gender. 1,2,3 The patients needing mechanical ventilation were also found to higher mortality than the non-ventilated ones. 3 Our patient was unique, as other than being a female, he had had multiple risk factors for increased morbidity and mortality.…”