Reopening Sleep Medicine Services in the Conundrum of an Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic: A Global View.

The emergence of COVID-19 brought all healthcare services around the globe to immense strain; hospitals abandoned elective care for acute care. Like all other elective services, sleep medicine services suffered a partial deadlock due to the closing down of the sleep disorders diagnostic and therapeutic services, although clinical consultations and follow-ups, carried on remotely, allowed some mitigation. Since there is dire need to resume the services, we tried to formulate the principles and guidelines to work in this exigent healthcare setting. Principles and guidelines are based on epidemiological and infection control guidelines besides recommendations of various healthcare organizations and sleep societies, after a requisite web search to extract the data.

Management of Aerosol during Noninvasive Ventilation for Patients with Sleep-Disordered Breathing: Important Messages during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

With the advent of COVID-19 infection and its rapid spread, preventive strategies are being developed worldwide, besides following the universal infection control guidelines. Prevention of spread through aerosol generation is one of the essential strategies in this regard, particularly for patients with sleep-disordered breathing at home and during hospital admission. Aerosols are produced, at home and in health care facilities, by natural processes and aerosol-generating procedures. To address this impinging problem, aerosol-generating procedures, like non-invasive ventilation (NIV), are to be handled meticulously, which might warrant isolation and sometimes device/interface modifications.