ABSTRACT
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is challenging the health care systems around the world and compelling them to timely share their strategies, tactics and experiences. Since mid-January, a huge volume of instructions has been released by Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOHME) covering diverse aspects of disease control and prevention. In this study, we aimed to review the instructions published either before or after COVID-19's transmission to Iran to depict the clinical approach and therapeutics used in Iran to battle the current pandemic. We retrospectively gathered and critically reviewed all official situation reports, guidelines, guidance, flowcharts, protocols, recommendations and advice released by Iranian scientific, or administrative arms of action against COVID-19. The ongoing clinical trials approved by MOHME and registered to the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (IRCT) have been reviewed as well. Our study resulted in the following mainstays of Iran's approach to COVID-19: (i) active clinical screening; preferably on-line or on-phone, (ii) management of limited paraclinical resources; by using them as diagnostic tools rather than epidemiological, (iii) a trend toward outpatient care of mild-to-moderate cases; either confirmed or suspicious, with active scheduled follow-up, and (iv) avoidance of pharmacotherapy, as far as possible. The therapeutic and administrative instructions are still being actively updated with some recommendations different from the previous ones. Nevertheless, a common approach in the background could be detected, It seems that the instructions are conceptually in line with the first "National Guideline for 2019-nCoV" published on 20 January 2020. The screening has mainly been clinically oriented rather than being based on laboratory tests and MOHME seems to be following the approach of "early detection of symptomatic cases followed by early source control."
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Clinical Protocols , Humans , Iran/epidemiology , Retrospective Studies , SARS-CoV-2Subject(s)
Betacoronavirus , Coronavirus Infections/prevention & control , Intubation, Intratracheal/standards , Noninvasive Ventilation/standards , Pandemics/prevention & control , Pneumonia, Viral/prevention & control , COVID-19 , Coronavirus Infections/transmission , Humans , Intubation, Intratracheal/methods , Noninvasive Ventilation/methods , Pneumonia, Viral/transmission , Respiration, Artificial/methods , Respiration, Artificial/standards , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
A 17-year-old healthy girl underwent an uneventful esthetic septorhinoplasty. She was easily extubated and transferred to the postanesthesia care unit (PACU) with oxygen saturation (SpO2) of 96%. About 30 minutes after arrival in the PACU, she developed dyspnea with SpO2 of 84% and promptly received oxygen with bilevel positive airway pressure in conjunction with low-dose corticosteroid. The subsequent chest computed tomography (CT) revealed bilateral patchy infiltrates similar to the radiologic findings of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Finally, a reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) of a pharyngeal specimen confirmed the diagnosis of COVID-19.