Quarantine Facility for Patients with COVID-19 with Mild Symptoms in Korea: Experience from Eighteen Residential Treatment Centers

With the rapid spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a particularly sharp increase in the number of confirmed cases in Daegu and Gyeongbuk regions at the end of February, Korea faced an unprecedented shortage of medical resources, including hospital beds. To cope with this shortage, the government introduced a severity scoring system for patients with COVID-19 and designed a new type of quarantine facility for treating and isolating patients with mild symptoms out of the hospital, namely, the Residential Treatment Center (RTC). A patient with mild symptoms was immediately isolated in the RTC and continuously monitored to detect changes in symptoms. If the symptoms aggravate, the patient was transferred to a hospital. RTCs were designed by creating a quarantine environment in existing lodging facilities capable of accommodating > 100 individuals. The facilities were entirely divided into a clean zone (working area) and contaminated zone (patient zone), separating the space, air, and movement routes, and the staff wore level D personal protective equipment (PPE) in the contaminated zone. The staffs consisted of medical personnel, police officers, soldiers, and operation personnel, and worked in two or three shifts per day.Their duty was mainly to monitor the health conditions of quarantined patients, provide accommodations, and regularly collect specimens to determine if they can be released.For the past two months, RTCs secured approximately 4,000 isolation rooms and treated approximately 3,000 patients with mild symptoms and operated stably without additional spread of the disease in and out of the centers. Based on these experience, we would like to suggest the utilization of RTCs as strategic quarantine facilities in pandemic situations.

Quarantine Facility for Patients with COVID-19 with Mild Symptoms in Korea: Experience from Eighteen Residential Treatment Centers

With the rapid spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a particularly sharp increase in the number of confirmed cases in Daegu and Gyeongbuk regions at the end of February, Korea faced an unprecedented shortage of medical resources, including hospital beds. To cope with this shortage, the government introduced a severity scoring system for patients with COVID-19 and designed a new type of quarantine facility for treating and isolating patients with mild symptoms out of the hospital, namely, the Residential Treatment Center (RTC). A patient with mild symptoms was immediately isolated in the RTC and continuously monitored to detect changes in symptoms. If the symptoms aggravate, the patient was transferred to a hospital. RTCs were designed by creating a quarantine environment in existing lodging facilities capable of accommodating > 100 individuals. The facilities were entirely divided into a clean zone (working area) and contaminated zone (patient zone), separating the space, air, and movement routes, and the staff wore level D personal protective equipment (PPE) in the contaminated zone. The staffs consisted of medical personnel, police officers, soldiers, and operation personnel, and worked in two or three shifts per day.Their duty was mainly to monitor the health conditions of quarantined patients, provide accommodations, and regularly collect specimens to determine if they can be released.For the past two months, RTCs secured approximately 4,000 isolation rooms and treated approximately 3,000 patients with mild symptoms and operated stably without additional spread of the disease in and out of the centers. Based on these experience, we would like to suggest the utilization of RTCs as strategic quarantine facilities in pandemic situations.

Biological effects of blood–brain barrier disruption using a focused ultrasound

With focused ultrasound (FUS) and microbubbles, BBB can be transiently disrupted with a localized and non-invasive approach. BBB disruption induced by FUS has made progressions to move forward on delivery of therapeutic agents into a brain in a specific area of brain for better treatment of neurological diseases. In addition to be used as an improvement of drug delivery, BBB disruption has been found to induce biological effects such as a clearance of protein aggregation which cause Alzheimer's disease, regulation of proteins which facilitate drug uptake, and modulation of neuronal function and neurogenesis. In this review, we discuss overview about the principles of BBB opening with FUS and milestones in these biological effects of FUS-induced BBB disruption.

Reversible endotracheal tube obstruction caused by meconium acting as a check valve / 대한마취과학회지

No abstract available.

Family Presence during Invasive Procedures in Pediatric Emergency Department: Comparison of General Attitude of Medical Staffs and Guardians

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to understand and compare the general attitude of medical staff and guardians toward family presence (FP) in the pediatric emergency department (PED). METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in PEDs in Korea. Doctors and nurses who worked in PEDs and guardians who brought children(< or =15 years old) to the PED were asked to complete a structured questionnaire. A 5-point Likert scale was used as the scoring method. The influence of invasiveness of procedures and socio-demographic factors associated with favorable attitude toward FP were assessed. RESULTS: A total of 206 medical staff and 194 guardians were enrolled. The proportion of guardians with a favorable attitude toward FP was higher than that of the medical staff (99.5% vs. 51.4%). Healthcare providers believed that FP could be "helpful to calm down children and/or guardian (s)", and expressed concern that FP could cause "breakage of rapport when procedure fails". Most guardians believed that FP could be "helpful to support the child emotionally". The invasiveness of procedures was negatively related to the proportion of favorable medical staff toward FP, but did not influence that of the guardians. Previous experience with FP (odds ratio=2.04, 95% confidence interval 1.19-4.22) and occupation (OR=0.17, 95% CI 0.07-0.38) of the medical staff showed a negative association with a favorable attitude toward FP. CONCLUSION: We found discrepancies in general attitude toward FP between guardians and medical staff. Previous experience with FP and occupation of medical staff showed an association with a favorable attitude toward FP.

Family Presence during Invasive Procedures in Pediatric Emergency Department: Comparison of General Attitude of Medical Staffs and Guardians

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to understand and compare the general attitude of medical staff and guardians toward family presence (FP) in the pediatric emergency department (PED). METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in PEDs in Korea. Doctors and nurses who worked in PEDs and guardians who brought children(< or =15 years old) to the PED were asked to complete a structured questionnaire. A 5-point Likert scale was used as the scoring method. The influence of invasiveness of procedures and socio-demographic factors associated with favorable attitude toward FP were assessed. RESULTS: A total of 206 medical staff and 194 guardians were enrolled. The proportion of guardians with a favorable attitude toward FP was higher than that of the medical staff (99.5% vs. 51.4%). Healthcare providers believed that FP could be "helpful to calm down children and/or guardian (s)", and expressed concern that FP could cause "breakage of rapport when procedure fails". Most guardians believed that FP could be "helpful to support the child emotionally". The invasiveness of procedures was negatively related to the proportion of favorable medical staff toward FP, but did not influence that of the guardians. Previous experience with FP (odds ratio=2.04, 95% confidence interval 1.19-4.22) and occupation (OR=0.17, 95% CI 0.07-0.38) of the medical staff showed a negative association with a favorable attitude toward FP. CONCLUSION: We found discrepancies in general attitude toward FP between guardians and medical staff. Previous experience with FP and occupation of medical staff showed an association with a favorable attitude toward FP.