Response of Chinese Anesthesiologists to the COVID-19 Outbreak

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019, named COVID-19 officially by the World Health Organization (Geneva, Switzerland) on February 12, 2020, has spread at unprecedented speed. After the first outbreak in Wuhan, China, Chinese anesthesiologists encountered increasing numbers of infected patients since December 2019. Because the main route of transmission is via respiratory droplets and close contact, anesthesia providers are at a high risk when responding to the devastating mass emergency. So far, actions have been taken including but not limited to nationwide actions and online education regarding special procedures of airway management, oxygen therapy, ventilation support, hemodynamic management, sedation, and analgesia. As the epidemic situation has lasted for months (thus far), special platforms have also been set up to provide free mental health care to all anesthesia providers participating in acute and critical caring for COVID-19 patients. The current article documents the actions taken, lesson learned, and future work needed.

How urgent do intravitreal anti-VEGF injections need to be to justify the risk of transmitting COVID-19? Proof-of-concept calculations to determine the Health Adjusted Life-Year (HALY) trade-off

“…Health authorities need to plan ahead in order to avoid a mismanaged flow, and minimize staff burnout. 25 We are mindful that the reasoning described in this paper will apply to a number of other procedures where untreated conditions are likely to result in a high burden of disease. The benefits and harms of performing procedures for these conditions should also be quantified.…”

Perioperative planning for cardiovascular operations in the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Strict anesthesia management and infection control procedures should be implanted for the suspected/ confirmed COVID-19 patients. [6,8,20,21]…”

“…Anesthesia and intubation protocols have been recently reported by experts. [8,9,20,21] The surgical team including surgeons, scrub nurse, and perfusionist should follow the instructions for PPE (Table 2). Additionally, surgeons and scrub nurse should put on the surgical cap and surgical mask over the PPE and, then, get scrubbed in and put on the surgical coat with double gloves (Figure 2).…”

“…[3][4][5] Although there are ongoing debates, the guidelines for anesthetic and airway management are considered to be well-documented. [6][7][8][9] However, the structure of the operating room (OR) and need for surgical steps for the surgeon have been neglected until now. [10][11][12] Likewise, there is no available algorithm for urgent/emergency cardiac surgeries in COVID-19 patients.…”

A survey of the organization, preparation and workload of the medical aid teams sent to Wuhan in China during Covid-19 epidemic

“…One thousand beds in Huoshenshan hospital, 1,600 beds in Leishenshan hospital and 4,250 beds in the three mobile eld hospitals (also known as Fangcang Hospitals) had been delivered for use on February 8th 2020. The rapidly increasing number of cases and the allocation of more hospitals and beds for patients with Covid-19, required the support of healthcare workers outside Wuhan and Hubei Province [4]. The regular press conference held by the Covid-19 control headquarters in China announced that as of 24:00 on March 8th 2020, 346 non-military Medical Aid Teams (MATs) and 42,600 medical team members had been sent to Hubei Province from other regions in China under the call of National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China (NHC).…”