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Introduction and aim. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of topical lidocaine application for nasopharyngeal sampling, on pain perception, the comfort of the patients, and the application difficulty for healthcare staff. Material and methods. This study conducted with 100 healthy volunteers (50 participants in Lidocaine group and 50 participants in Placebo group). Two ml of a solution containing 10 mg/ml of lidocaine was applied to each nostril of the participants in the Lidocaine group, and the same dose of 0.9% NaCl to the Placebo group. We compared the changes in pain intensity and discomfort intensity using two numerical rating scales, the frequency of undesirable reactions, and the judgment of the practitioner staff. Results. There were statistically significant decreases in pain and discomfort scores in the Lidocaine group. Similarly, there were statistically significant decreases in the frequency of all undesirable reactions except "grimace”, in the second sampling in the Lidocaine group, however, there was a statistically significant decrease only in "holding staff's hand” in second sampling in the Placebo group. Conclusion. Intranasal lidocaine application reduces the pain that occurs during nasopharyngeal sampling and makes the procedure easier for the patient and the healthcare worker. © 2022 Publishing Office of the University of Rzeszow. All Rights Reserved.
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INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study is to examine the story, clinical findings, initial computed tomography (CT) findings and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) results and evaluate the consistency of this data. METHODS: This is a multi-center retrospective study and out of patients aged 18 and over who were evaluated for COVID-19 in the emergency department between 01.04.2020 and 01.05.2020. Data regarding the patients such as age, gender, comorbidity, COVID-19 contact, symptoms, vital findings, laboratory parameters, CT findings, hospitalization status and case fatality rate (CFR) were examined. RESULTS: 62.4% of 687 patients were male, the mean age was 49.7.49.9% of patients had at least one comorbidity. The most common symptoms were fever (61.6%), cough (56.5%), dyspnea (33.2%). 33.9% of patients had RT-PCR positivity, 69.9% had CT positivity, and 72.5% had both RT-PCR and CT positivity. Sensitivity of CT was 72.5, its specificity was 31.5% and its accuracy was 45.5%. Most common CT pattern was pure GGO (47.9%). CFR was 6% and it was significantly higher in both RT-PCR and CT positive patients (p=0.01). According to logistic regression analysis, male gender (p=0.037;OR: 0.385;95% CI, 0.157-0.943), higher age (p=0.000;OR: 1.068;95% CI, 1.031-1.106) and comorbidity presence (p=0.008;OR: 5.374;95% CI, 1.539-7.618) were found to be associated with mortality. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: In our study, we found that using RT-PCR and CT together and supporting them with clinical data was the strongest approach in the diagnosis of COVID-19 cases.