[Assessment of Teleconsultation for planned orthopaedic surgery]. / Faisabilité d'une téléconsultation d'anesthésie en chirurgie orthopédique programmée.

The COVID-19 pandemic has motivated the development of teleconsultation in anaesthesia. We have conducted a single centre prospective study in patients scheduled for planned orthopaedic surgery during 9 weeks between may and july 2020 to assess its practicability. The quality of the consultation and patients' satisfaction, were evaluated during this period. The teleconsultation was successful in 90% of the patients without the need of attendance to the hospital for assessment before anaesthesia. The process was satisfactory for 97% of these patients. The mean duration was 15 minutes. The support of a third party was required in 46% of patients older than 65 years. The main cause of failure was the poor quality of the connection. Only two patients were cancelled for surgery because they did not understand fasting rule. The teleconsultation is now an integral part of preoperative assessment of patients for anaesthesia with good practicability and reliability.

A national healthcare response to intensive care bed requirements during the COVID-19 outbreak in France.

BACKGROUND: Whereas 5415 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds were initially available, 7148 COVID-19 patients were hospitalised in the ICU at the peak of the outbreak. The present study reports how the French Health Care system created temporary ICU beds to avoid being overwhelmed. METHODS: All French ICUs were contacted for answering a questionnaire focusing on the available beds and health care providers before and during the outbreak. RESULTS: Among 336 institutions with ICUs before the outbreak, 315 (94%) participated, covering 5054/5531 (91%) ICU beds. During the outbreak, 4806 new ICU beds (+95% increase) were created from Acute Care Unit (ACU, 2283), Post Anaesthetic Care Unit and Operating Theatre (PACU & OT, 1522), other units (374) or real build-up of new ICU beds (627), respectively. At the peak of the outbreak, 9860, 1982 and 3089 ICU, ACU and PACU beds were made available. Before the outbreak, 3548 physicians (2224 critical care anaesthesiologists, 898 intensivists and 275 from other specialties, 151 paediatrics), 1785 residents, 11,023 nurses and 6763 nursing auxiliaries worked in established ICUs. During the outbreak, 2524 physicians, 715 residents, 7722 nurses and 3043 nursing auxiliaries supplemented the usual staff in all ICUs. A total number of 3212 new ventilators were added to the 5997 initially available in ICU. CONCLUSION: During the COVID-19 outbreak, the French Health Care system created 4806 ICU beds (+95% increase from baseline), essentially by transforming beds from ACUs and PACUs. Collaboration between intensivists, critical care anaesthesiologists, emergency physicians as well as the mobilisation of nursing staff were primordial in this context.

Guidelines: Anaesthesia in the context of COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: The world is currently facing an unprecedented healthcare crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of these guidelines is to produce a framework to facilitate the partial and gradual resumption of intervention activity in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: The group has endeavoured to produce a minimum number of recommendations to highlight the strengths to be retained in the 7 predefined areas: (1) protection of staff and patients; (2) benefit/risk and patient information; (3) preoperative assessment and decision on intervention; (4) modalities of the preanaesthesia consultation; (5) specificity of anaesthesia and analgesia; (6) dedicated circuits and (7) containment exit type of interventions. RESULTS: The SFAR Guideline panel provides 51 statements on anaesthesia management in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. After one round of discussion and various amendments, a strong agreement was reached for 100% of the recommendations and algorithms. CONCLUSION: We present suggestions for how the risk of transmission by and to anaesthetists can be minimised and how personal protective equipment policies relate to COVID-19 pandemic context.