ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: COVID-19 pandemic hampered operational efficiency of heart transplant (HT) programs worldwide. Little is known about the global and country-specific changes in HT volumes during the pandemic years 2020-2021. We aimed to describe the global and country-level impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on HT volumes in 2020-2021. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study of the Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation, including the years 2019 to 2021. Among 60 countries that reported HT data in the years 2019-2020, we analyzed 52 countries with ≥1 transplant during each year. RESULTS: Overall, the number of HTs decreased during 2020 by 9.3% (1.82 to 1.65 PMP). While 75% (n=39/52) of countries experienced a decrease in HT volumes in 2020, volumes were maintained/increased in the remaining countries. Countries with maintained HT volumes had a higher organ donation rate in 2020 compared to those with decreased volumes (P=.03), the only significant predictor of change in HT volumes (P=.005). In 2021, a 6.6% recovery from the previous year's drop in global HT rate was noticed, reaching 1.76 HT PMP. Only one in five countries with reduced volumes in 2020 recovered their baseline volumes in 2021. Only 30.8% of countries with maintained volumes in 2020 had continued growth in HT volumes in 2021. CONCLUSION: Further work should define underlying causes of this heterogeneity in HT volume during the pandemic. Identifying policies and practices that helped certain countries mitigate the effect of the pandemic on HT activities may help other countries during similar health crises in the future.
ABSTRACT
There has been a substantial increase in the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support in critically ill adults. Understanding the complex changes that could affect drugs' pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD) is of suitable need. Therefore, critically ill patients on ECMO represent a challenging clinical situation to manage pharmacotherapy. Thus, clinicians' ability to predict PK and PD alterations within this complex clinical context is fundamental to ensure further optimal and, sometimes, individualized therapeutic plans that balance clinical outcomes with the minimum drug adverse events. Although ECMO remains an irreplaceable extracorporeal technology, and despite the resurgence in its use for respiratory and cardiac failures, especially in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, scarce data exist on both its effect on the most commonly used drugs and their relative management to achieve the best therapeutic outcomes. The goal of this review is to provide key information about some evidence-based PK alterations of the drugs used in an ECMO setting and their monitoring.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Organ Transplantation , Humans , COVID-19/epidemiology , Pandemics , SARS-CoV-2 , Organ Transplantation/adverse effectsABSTRACT
Heart failure is a common disease state that can be encountered at different stages in the course of a COVID-19 patient presentation. New or existing heart failure in the setting of COVID-19 can present a set of unique challenges that can complicate presentation, management, and prognosis. A careful understanding of the hemodynamic and diagnostic implications is essential for appropriate triage and management of these patients. Abnormal cardiac biomarkers are common in COVID-19 and can stem from a variety of mechanisms that involve the viral entry itself through the ACE2 receptors, direct cardiac injury, increased thrombotic activity, stress cardiomyopathy, and among others. The cytokine storm observed in this pandemic can be a culprit in many of the observed mechanisms and presentations. A correct understanding of the two-way interaction between heart failure medications and the infection as well as the proposed COVID-19 medications and heart failure can result in optimal management. Guideline-directed medical therapy for heart failure should not be interrupted for theoretical concerns but rather based on tolerance and clinical presentation. Initiating specific cardiac or heart failure medications to prevent the infection or mitigate the disease is also not an evidence-based practice at this time. Heart failure patients on advanced therapies including those with heart transplantation will particularly benefit from involving the advanced heart failure team members in the overall management if they contract the virus.