The change of clinical features and surgical outcomes in patients with pressure injury during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This retrospective study aims to explore whether the COVID-19 pandemic altered patient conditions and surgery outcomes by studying 213 pressure injury (PI) patients who underwent surgery during 2016 to 2019 (pre-COVID) and 2020 to 2021 (COVID) in Taiwan. We extracted patient demographics, surgical and blood test records, preoperative vital signs, and flap surgery outcomes. In total, 464 surgeries were performed, including 308 pre-COVID and 156 COVID. During the COVID period, there were more patients presenting with dementia, and it had significantly more patients with >12 000 white blood cells/µL (24.03% vs 15.59%, P = 0.029), higher C-reactive protein levels (7.13 ± 6.36 vs 5.58 ± 5.09 mg/dL, P = 0.014), pulse rates (86.67 ± 14.76 vs 81.26 ± 13.66 beats/min, P < 0.001), and respiratory rates (17.87 ± 1.98 vs 17.31 ± 2.39 breaths/min, P = 0.009) but lower haemoglobin levels (9.75 ± 2.02 vs 10.43 ± 1.67 mg/dL, P < 0.001) preoperatively. There were no between-group differences in flap surgery outcomes but had fewer flap surgeries during COVID-19. Thus, PI patient condition was generally poor during the COVID-19 pandemic because of reduced access to medical treatment; this problem may be resolved through holistic care during a future pandemic or pandemic-like situation.

Nanofiber-Based Odor-Free Medical Mask Fabrication Using Polyvinyl Butyral and Eucalyptus Anti Odor Agent.

Following the 2020 COVID-19 worldwide outbreak, many countries adopted sanitary and safety measures to safeguard public health such as wearing medical face mask. While face masks became a necessity for people, disadvantages impede their long period wearing such as uncomfortable breathability and odor. The intermediate layer of the medical face mask is composed of porous non-woven fabric to block external particles while maintaining breathability. To overcome aforementioned limitation, this study uses electrospinning to design and fabricate odorless face masks via the use of aromatic oil. Eucalyptus essential oil is encapsulated through mixing and layer-by-layer by hydrophobic polyvinyl butyral and further used to fabricate the medical mask intermediate layer. We found that adding 0.2 g of eucalyptus into polyvinyl butyral fabric through mixing results in the deodorization rate of 80% after 2 h, with fabric thickness of 440.9 µm, and melt-blown non-woven fabric thickness of 981.7 µm. The Particle Filtration Efficiency of 98.3%, Bacterial Filtration Efficiency above 99.9%, and the differential pressure of 4.7 mm H2O/cm2 meet the CNS 14774 standard on medical face masks. Therefore, this study successfully proved that this type of masks' middle layer not only effectively protects against coronavirus, but also provides better scents and makes it more comfortable for consumers.