ABSTRACT
The prone position is a crucial position used in the operating rooms and the intensive care units, with its importance highly recognized during the COVID-19 pandemic in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a cardinal procedure that is indicated and performed on any eligible patient who has cardiopulmonary arrest and resultant lack of perfusion and oxygenation. When a patient has a cardiopulmonary arrest in the prone position, the options include rotating the patient supine before starting cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or beginning CPR while prone. Prone CPR has not had a widely accepted use so far. In this article, we narrate the process of protocol development and staff education at our hospital for the initiation of prone CPR and review the literature related to it. Prone CPR is an effective technique with good outcomes and involves a learning curve. Appropriate training needs to be done before implementing the protocol, and adequate quality control measures need to be set to ensure that the skill set is maintained.
Subject(s)
E-Cigarette Vapor , Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems , Electronics , Humans , PandemicsABSTRACT
E-cigarettes or vaping products became available in the market in 2004. Since then, their use has rapidly increased in all sections of society. They have been increasingly used as a "safer" alternative for combustible cigarettes and as an aid toward smoking cessation. Over time, the acceptability of e-cigarettes in public spaces increased. Lack of regulatory control also led to a rapid rise in the rate of e-cigarette/vaping product users. We report a case of a 35-year-old female who recently switched from conventional cigarettes to e-cigarette usage, and who presented to the emergency department after an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. She was found to have bilateral extensive nodular ground-glass opacities on a CT angiogram of the chest. She needed non-invasive ventilation and was initially started on broad-spectrum antibiotic treatment for possible pneumonia. Due to a worsening clinical status, e-cigarette or vaping product associated lung injury (EVALI) diagnosis was considered, and she was started on parenteral steroid therapy, leading to rapid recovery in respiratory status. With a tapering course of steroid therapy and cessation of e-cigarette use, there was complete clinical and radiological recovery. This case highlights that EVALI can have varied clinical presentations, and the diagnosis should be considered in anyone who presents with an acute cardio-pulmonary decline and a concomitant history of e-cigarette use.
ABSTRACT
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges to the healthcare system globally, with opportunistic and secondary infections being one of the biggest challenges. Most secondary infections occur as nosocomial infections due to exposure to multidrug-resistant organisms in healthcare facilities. Secondary bacterial pneumonia complicates the care of hospitalized COVID-19 pneumonia patients. We present the case of a 77-year-old male who was diagnosed with COVID-19 pneumonia about four weeks before the current presentation to the hospital and was treated symptomatically in the community setting. During workup, he was diagnosed with multifocal pneumonia and right-sided empyema caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). He underwent chest tube thoracostomy followed by intrapleural fibrinolysis along with targeted antibiotic therapy. He needed video-assisted thoracoscopy with decortication due to inadequate improvement with intrapleural fibrinolysis. This case is a rare presentation of a community-acquired MRSA lung infection that occurred after recovery from COVID-19 pneumonia. This case emphasizes the importance of monitoring for secondary infections, as well as highlights the extent of secondary infections in COVID-19.