Triage admission protocol with a centralized quarantine unit for patients after acute care surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic: A tertiary center experience in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND: During the COVID-19 surge in Taiwan, the Far East Memorial Hospital established a system including a centralized quarantine unit and triage admission protocol to facilitate acute care surgical inpatient services, prevent nosocomial COVID-19 infection and maintain the efficiency and quality of health care service during the pandemics. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included patients undergoing acute care surgery. The triage admission protocol was based on rapid antigen tests, Liat® PCR and RT-PCT tests. Type of surgical procedure, patient characteristics, and efficacy indices of the centralized quarantine unit and emergency department (ED) were collected and analyzed before (Phase I: May 11 to July 2, 2021) and after (Phase II: July 3 to July 31, 2021) the system started. RESULTS: A total of 287 patients (105 in Phase I and 182 in Phase II) were enrolled. Nosocomial COVID-19 infection occur in 27 patients in phase I but zero in phase II. More patients received traumatological, orthopedic, and neurologic surgeries in phase II than in phase I. The patients' surgical risk classification, median total hospital stay, intensive care unit (ICU) stay, intraoperative blood loss, operation time, and the number of patients requiring postoperative ICU care were similar in both groups. The duration of ED stay and waiting time for acute care surgery were longer in Phase II (397 vs. 532 minutes, p < 0.0001). The duration of ED stay was positively correlated with the number of surgical patients visiting the ED (median = 66 patients, Spearman's ρ = 0.207) and the occupancy ratio in the centralized quarantine unit on that day (median = 90.63%, Spearman's ρ = 0.191). CONCLUSIONS: The triage admission protocol provided resilient quarantine needs and sustainable acute care surgical services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The efficiency was related to the number of medical staff dedicated to the centralized quarantine unit and number of surgical patients visited in ED.

Symptoms of Dry Eye Disease in Hospitalized Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

BACKGROUND: We aimed to investigate the symptoms of the dry eye disease (DED) of hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). METHODS: This cross-sectional, observational study analysis included 91 hospitalized patients with confirmed COVID-19 in Wuhan, China. The Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) and the five-item Dry Eye Questionnaire (DEQ-5) were used to assess the severity of DED symptoms in the patients, and the analysis of variance was used to determine the factors associated with DED. RESULTS: A total of 42 patients consented to complete the investigation (response rate 46.15%). There were 26 (61.90%) patients who were diagnosed with DED symptoms by OSDI, and there were 28 (66.67%) patients with DED symptoms who were diagnosed by DEQ-5 score. For the biochemical tests, the patients with DED symptoms had lower aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels compared to those with no DED symptoms (20.86 vs. 42.14, p=0.04). Further analysis showed that a previous history of cardiac or stroke disease (p=0.02) and typical symptoms of muscle soreness (p=0.03) were significantly different among the four DED symptoms groups on the basis of OSDI scores. The contributing factors of OSDI were mainly focused on visual function and environmental triggers. CONCLUSION: The incidence of DED symptoms is higher in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. The serum AST levels, history of cardiac or stroke disease, and the typical symptoms of muscle soreness may be the main impact factors on DED symptoms. We also need to pay more attention to the visual function and environmental triggers of hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

The clinical symptoms, classification and diagnosis of COVID-19

Coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) is pneumonia caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2), which causes tens of millions of infections and millions of deaths worldwide. The initial symptoms of COVID-19 are very similar to "severe cold", which is often treated with "influenza". This is more common in European and American countries, resulting in a large number of infected people losing the best opportunity for treatment, and thus become a virus disseminator. This paper summarized the clinical symptoms, patient classification and diagnosis of coronavirus disease(COVID-19), with a view to rapidly distinguish common influenza and 2019 coronavirus disease(COVID-19) in clinical practice, and to achieve effective isolation and symptomatic treatment for patients, so as to achieve early prevention, early detection and early treatment, reduce mortality and improve the recovery rate.