Project description:To understand and analyse the global impact of COVID-19 on outpatient services, inpatient care, elective surgery, and perioperative colorectal cancer care, a DElayed COloRectal cancer surgery (DECOR-19) survey was conducted in collaboration with numerous international colorectal societies with the objective of obtaining several learning points from the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on our colorectal cancer patients which will assist us in the ongoing management of our colorectal cancer patients and to provide us safe oncological pathways for future outbreaks.
Project description:Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can lead to multiorgan damage and fatal outcomes. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are detectable in blood, reflecting cell activation and tissue injury. We performed small RNA-Seq in healthy controls (N=11), non-severe (N=18) and severe (N=16) COVID-19 patients
Project description:The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) that was first reported at the end of 2019 has impacted almost every aspect of life as we know it. This paper focuses on the incidence of the disease in Italy and Spain-two of the first and most affected European countries. Using two simple mathematical epidemiological models-the Susceptible-Infectious-Recovered model and the log-linear regression model, we model the daily and cumulative incidence of COVID-19 in the two countries during the early stage of the outbreak, and compute estimates for basic measures of the infectiousness of the disease including the basic reproduction number, growth rate, and doubling time. Estimates of the basic reproduction number were found to be larger than 1 in both countries, with values being between 2 and 3 for Italy, and 2.5 and 4 for Spain. Estimates were also computed for the more dynamic effective reproduction number, which showed that since the first cases were confirmed in the respective countries the severity has generally been decreasing. The predictive ability of the log-linear regression model was found to give a better fit and simple estimates of the daily incidence for both countries were computed.
Project description:BackgroundCOVID-19 surges led to significant challenges in ensuring critical care capacity. In response, some centers leveraged neurocritical care (NCC) capacity as part of the surge response, with neurointensivists providing general critical care for patients with COVID-19 without neurologic illness. The relative outcomes of NCC critical care management of patients with COVID-19 remain unclear and may help guide further surge planning and provide broader insights into general critical care provided in NCC units.MethodsWe performed an observational cohort study of all patients requiring critical care for COVID-19 across four hospitals within the Emory Healthcare system during the first three surges. Patients were categorized on the basis of admission to intensive care units (ICUs) staffed by general intensivists or neurointensivists. Patients with primary neurological diagnoses were excluded. Baseline demographics, clinical complications, and outcomes were compared between groups using univariable and propensity score matching statistics.ResultsA total of 1141 patients with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19 required ICU admission. ICUs were staffed by general intensivists (n = 1071) or neurointensivists (n = 70). Baseline demographics and presentation characteristics were similar between groups, except for patients admitted to neurointensivist-staffed ICUs being younger (59 vs. 65, p = 0.027) and having a higher PaO2/FiO2 ratio (153 vs. 120, p = 0.002). After propensity score matching, there was no correlation between ICU staffing and the use of mechanical ventilation, renal replacement therapy, and vasopressors. The rates of in-hospital mortality and hospice disposition were similar in neurointensivist-staffed COVID-19 units (odds ratio 0.9, 95% confidence interval 0.31-2.64, p = 0.842).ConclusionsCOVID-19 surges precipitated a natural experiment in which neurology-trained neurointensivists provided critical care in a comparable context to general intensivists treating the same disease. Neurology-trained neurointensivists delivered comparable outcomes to those of general ICUs during COVID-19 surges. These results further support the role of NCC in meeting general critical care needs of neurocritically ill patients and as a viable surge resource in general critical care.
Project description:We compare the expected all-cause mortality with the observed one for different age classes during the pandemic in Lombardy, which was the epicenter of the epidemic in Italy. The first case in Italy was found in Lombardy in early 2020, and the first wave was mainly centered in Lombardy. The other three waves, in Autumn 2020, March 2021 and Summer 2021 are also characterized by a high number of cases in absolute terms. A generalized linear mixed model is introduced to model weekly mortality from 2011 to 2019, taking into account seasonal patterns and year-specific trends. Based on the 2019 year-specific conditional best linear unbiased predictions, a significant excess of mortality is estimated in 2020, leading to approximately 35000 more deaths than expected, mainly arising during the first wave. In 2021, instead, the excess mortality is not significantly different from zero, for the 85+ and 15-64 age classes, and significant reductions with respect to the 2020 estimated excess mortality are estimated for other age classes.
Project description:ImportanceThere are limited data on mortality and complications rates in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) who undergo surgery.ObjectiveTo evaluate early surgical outcomes of patients with COVID-19 in different subspecialties.Design, setting, and participantsThis matched cohort study conducted in the general, vascular and thoracic surgery, orthopedic, and neurosurgery units of Spedali Civili Hospital (Brescia, Italy) included patients who underwent surgical treatment from February 23 to April 1, 2020, and had positive test results for COVID-19 either before or within 1 week after surgery. Gynecological and minor surgical procedures were excluded. Patients with COVID-19 were matched with patients without COVID-19 with a 1:2 ratio for sex, age group, American Society of Anesthesiologists score, and comorbidities recorded in the surgical risk calculator of the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program. Patients older than 65 years were also matched for the Clinical Frailty Scale score.ExposuresPatients with positive results for COVID-19 and undergoing surgery vs matched surgical patients without infection. Screening for COVID-19 was performed with reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assay in nasopharyngeal swabs, chest radiography, and/or computed tomography. Diagnosis of COVID-19 was based on positivity of at least 1 of these investigations.Main outcomes and measuresThe primary end point was early surgical mortality and complications in patients with COVID-19; secondary end points were the modeling of complications to determine the importance of COVID-19 compared with other surgical risk factors.ResultsOf 41 patients (of 333 who underwent operation during the same period) who underwent mainly urgent surgery, 33 (80.5%) had positive results for COVID-19 preoperatively and 8 (19.5%) had positive results within 5 days from surgery. Of the 123 patients of the combined cohorts (78 women [63.4%]; mean [SD] age, 76.6 [14.4] years), 30-day mortality was significantly higher for those with COVID-19 compared with control patients without COVID-19 (odds ratio [OR], 9.5; 95% CI, 1.77-96.53). Complications were also significantly higher (OR, 4.98; 95% CI, 1.81-16.07); pulmonary complications were the most common (OR, 35.62; 95% CI, 9.34-205.55), but thrombotic complications were also significantly associated with COVID-19 (OR, 13.2; 95% CI, 1.48-∞). Different models (cumulative link model and classification tree) identified COVID-19 as the main variable associated with complications.Conclusions and relevanceIn this matched cohort study, surgical mortality and complications were higher in patients with COVID-19 compared with patients without COVID-19. These data suggest that, whenever possible, surgery should be postponed in patients with COVID-19.