COVID-19 Extubation Protocol (in the works)

Many questions on how to extubate these patients. There's no right answer yet. I've read of a high reintubation rate for these patients and cardiac arrest after extubation we need to be prepared for that. This is a living, breathing document. I would like to make changes as you all point out things that I have missed. 

Prior to extubation:
Before getting to the point of extubation, I would favor a prolonged version of 0/5 or 5/5 on PSV due to high rate of reintubation, possibly even T-piece. Allow the lungs to de-recruit. My opinion. Make sure the patient can tolerate this. As mentioned earlier, I have heard of significant reintubation rates with crashing and burning of patients. One must also have to wait a while until the proper crew and gear is ready. 

The extubation itself:
The extubation procedure must be treated like an aerosol generating procedure (bronch, intubation, etc.). Full PPE for staff, N-95, PAPPR, full draping, etc. Should only require 2 people. The unanimous response of everyone I have asked directly have included undoing the restraint, deflating the cuff, and running out the room. This is hilarious but not realistic. We should not encourage the patient to cough. Good luck with that. 

Supplemental O2:
Clinical judgement comes into play here. We all have concerns about aerosolizing the virus and questions regarding which device hypothetically causes more or less of this. Hopefully the patient needs just room air. Then next comes the regular nasal cannula. I'll defer to your clinical judgement and patient scenario on what you choose to use after that. 

Unclear Questions:
How long to remain in airborne precautions?
At least 3 hours (this is based on the NEJM study I reference earlier). After that, I would put a surgical facemask on the patient, if available, for when the cough they don't get it all over the place. My vote would be to be in an N95 anytime around a COVID patient but that's unrealistic. 

Should we check a viral load prior to extubation?
In a perfect world I would love to know whether the patient is still infectious or not. Right now the testing that most institutions is lackluster at best with not enough testing available and too long a turnaround time. Treat everyone as if they're still infectious. 

Addendum: there are photos circling around about putting big plastic bags around patient's head to contain the cough and pre-fill it with heliox. I have zero experience with this. I would like to see how you all do your thang!



Medical Journal of Australia- PDF



IBCC: Josh Farkas



ANZICS Guidelines

-EJ

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Plasma to treat COVID-19?

The FDA is opening up clinical trials to see if convalescent plasma (you know, plasma from people who have defeated COVID-19) helps treat individuals with severe COVID-19 infections. I basically took screenshots of the info so we can get some clinical trials going. But first, we need some donors. Lots of limitations to enrolling people simply bc it was so hard to diagnose people in the first place but that’s a story for another day. If you discharge someone from your shop after recovering from COVID, potentially talk to them about donating plasma. Hopefully the data proves it’ll save some more lives.


Link to FDA Document



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Anosmia and dysgeusia

I took a day off from the whole COVID situation yesterday (which I recommend you do if you can) and sat on the sidelines. I didn't see anything monumental to post about and the rest of the social media community posted great work. I didn't have anything important to add. I'm trying to figure out ways to take care of all of us in this order.

That being said, last night when I was scrolling around twitter before going to bed, I ran into many articles regarding the anosmia/hyposmia (loss/decreased of sense of smell) and dysgeusia (loss of sense of taste) in patients with COVID-19. Let's dig into this some more. By no means am I an ENT nor the most knowledgable person in the cranial nerves. This is a relatively new rabbit hole I'm digging into. Join me in this journey.

The reason why I am going into this is because it could be particularly helpful in the healthcare worker population because we are typically quite healthy and may be asymptomatic carriers. This could be the only symptom and may be worth considering self-isolation or testing (or wearing two bandanas instead of one). We can't get ourselves nor our teammates sick. Unfortunately, with how testing is going right now, people presenting with this do not meet criteria for testing or self-isolation.

The links to everything I am mentioning here are on my website: eddyjoemd.com. The AAO (American Academy of Otolaryngology) mentioned in a statement on 3/22 that we are receiving a good amount of anecdotal evidence "from sites around the world that anosmia and dysgeusia are significant symptoms associated with the COVID-19 pandemic." Is this something that's new? Well, no. ENT-UK states that "post-viral anosmia is one of the leading causes of loss of sense of smell in adults, accounting for up to 40% cases of anosmia."

This is particularly a big deal because a basketball player says he has it. Maybe the WHO and CDC will list it as part of the symptoms now.

Anosmia incidence:
South Korea- 30% of patients testing positive have had anosmia as their major presenting symptom in otherwise mild cases. (ENT-UK)
Germany- up to two-thirds “described a loss of smell and taste lasting several days”

While digging into this, since there is nothing in the peer-reviewed journals about the matter, I found it comical how many different news mediums published the same exact article just slightly re-written. You know, similar to what I have done here. Stay safe everyone!

-EJ

ENT-UK Document

American Academy of Otolaryngology— Head and Neck Surgery

Livescience.com

German Data

Rudy Gobert has anosmia

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Why do we give Corticosteroids during Septic Shock?

Whether you're a med student, intern, resident, or nurse, you've wondered why in the world we give patients who are in septic shock stress dose steroids. This article breaks down in a not-so-easy to understand fashion of the nitty details that are too complex for my post-night shift brain to digest.

The powers that be in Critical Care, SCCM and ESICM, got together for this review with some big guns in the field to write this review discussing Critical Illness-related corticosteroid insufficiency.

Link to Abstract

Link to FULL FREE PDF

Annane D, Pastores SM, Arlt W, Balk RA, Beishuizen A, Briegel J, Carcillo J, Christ-Crain M, Cooper MS, Marik PE, et al.: Critical illness-related corticosteroid insufficiency (CIRCI): a narrative review from a Multispecialty Task Force of the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) and the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM). Intensive Care Med 43(12):1781–1792, 2017.

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Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin as a treatment of COVID-19: Updated on 3/29/20

First of all, credit to the authors. Huge hat tip to them.

Gautret et al. (2020) Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a treatment of COVID‐19: results of an open‐label non‐randomized clinical trial. International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents – In Press 17 March 2020 – DOI : 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2020.105949

First of all, there are a substantial amount of limitations to the study but in my opinion, not medical advice, it provides a glimmer of hope. 

Let's begin

Where was it performed: French study (thank youuuuuu!)

Population: NOT ICU Patients! But we've learned that non-ICU patients become ICU patients extremely quick! 

n=36 (20 hydroxychloroquine, 16 control)

How did the determine the Viral load? Nasopharyngeal swabs daily
Questions I have: 6 patients (originally n=42) lost to follow up. Patients who were transferred to the ICU were considered to be "lost to follow-up" (n=3). I can't tell if the one patient who died was transferred to the ICU. Hopefully the edits will sort this out. Why didn't they just follow those patients who ended up in the ICU?
Age groups were not matched but this would favor the control group as the experimental group was older. More were male in the experimental group which we assume that males get this worse than females. More asymptomatic patients in the control group, also bodes worse for the experimental arm.

3 classifications: asymptomatic, upper respiratory, lower respiratory

Regimen:

Hydroxychloroquine 600mg daily (200mg TID x 10 days)

+/- azithromycin depending on clinical presentation (500mg on day 1, 250mg x 4 days) 

Results: 

At day 6, 70% of hydroxychloroquine group were virologically cured vs. 12.5% in control group (p=0.001) NNT = 1.7!! 

100% of hydroxychloroquine + azithromycin were virologically cured vs 57.1% in the hydroxychloroquine only group vs. 12.5% in the control group (p0.001)

Drug effect was higher in URI and LRI than asymptomatic patients (p=0.05)

Starts working in 3-6 days per this data. 

Careful with the QT prolongation on the EKG! Replete the Mg as needed for this. Monitor liver function. My pharmacy friends can contribute some more adverse effect stuff like retinopathy, etc.  

I cannot make any recommendations as I do not give medical advice but I know what I would do with this data to save a life. 

-EJ

LINK TO FULL FREE PDF!!

An Update on 3/29/2020

We have an update now from the same researchers in France. It's a free PDF and I recommend you read it yourself. Don't trust me.

Interesting that the authors mention potentially using ARBs, metformin, and statins as many have directly messaged me asking what I thought on these particular families of treatments. This study has me scratching my head. Their first study seemed like they rushed it out the door to start some more broad research. This study seems like they're deliberately hiding things from us or trying to remain obscure.

Methods:This is an observational study, meaning they didn't have any controls.

80% of patients appear to have gotten a CT of the chest and (almost) every patient had a daily nasopharyngeal swab.

They all got an EKG before treatment and two days after treatment began. They had criteria to not start therapy based on some findings listed in the article.

Treatment regimen:Hydroxychloroquine 200mg three time a day for 10 days
Azithromycin 500mg on day 1, then 250 daily for 4 days


End points (these are not your typical endpoints):

Clinical Outcome (oxygen therapy or ICU transfer)
Contagiousness by PCR and culture
Length of stay in the ID ward

Things to know:n=80

4 patients were asymptomatic carriers (then why were they in the COVID unit?)

92% of the patients were less ill based on their made up NEWS score

52.8% had lower respiratory infections/pneumonia.

Results:
We don't have any controls to know if this is the normal course of the infection or if the hydroxychloroquine actually worked or not. I forgive them for not having controls in the prior study but this is now too much.

93.8% were discharged from a low NEWS score. Don't forget that 92% had a low news score to begin with!

3 patients still ended up in the ICU.

The nasopharyngeal viral load fell. Sure. Cool. Thanks. But does this normally fall at this rate without treatment? We need controls. Is the decrease in contagiousness the normal evolution or the drugs working? We don't know. No controls.

I'm tired of reviewing this study. You all get my point. I am in favor of trying it, but I feel like there's some academic dishonesty happening here.

I really want this to work. I really really do. We need some good news but we also need to solidify our management with better data.


Link to full FREE PDF

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SCCM/ESICM Guidelines on COVID-19

The Society of Critical Care Medicine and the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine came together for these guidelines regarding COVID-19. Thank goodness they didn’t include 30cc/kg bolus for an elevated lactate 🤣. I figure this will be revised as more data comes out in the upcoming weeks, especially regarding the therapies as Kaletra was recently mostly disproven to have a benefit. 

Many of the recommendations included are not new to us who are on the cutting edge of Critical Care medicine but it’s always good to share concepts such as conservative fluid management , using balanced crystalloids over 0.9% saline, not using dopamine. They have relaxed their MAP goals. I wonder if that has to do with the new trials on MAP goals in the elderly since this predominantly affects the elderly. Hmmmm need to look into that some more. They also stress the importance of proning patients. If your shop doesn’t prone, I have posts and guidelines for this on this page and my website. 

I’ll try hard to answer your questions but there’s a lot going on and I’m quite busy with a number of other tasks I’m helping out with. Best of luck to you all!

- EJ

Link to FULL FREE PDF

Link to SCCM Page

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Kaletra (lopinavir–ritonavir) did not work in COVID-19 :(

Trials are starting to come in. I'm not going to belabor the fact but it appears that Kaletra, also known as lopinavir–ritonavir (400 mg and 100 mg, respectively) does not work for patients with COVID-19. I'm not going to dissect the article for you all as this is more intended to be a news bulletin of sorts. It is important to note that they used the sickest of the sick patients in the study. This does not mean that data in the future will say that it cannot help in those less ill but I really don’t see anyone trying at this point.

No difference in clinical improvement, mortality, nor decrease in viral load. Please read the article for yourself if you're using this at your institution. I do not provide medical advice. A 🎩 tip to the authors.

I have seen it in the protocols for several institutions that have been sent to me. I will never EVER disclose any information that you all send me via email without discussing it with you all first.

Tomorrow is my 38th birthday so I'll be celebrating it with a ton of social distancing and maybe a trip to a more secluded beach.

Thank you for your support. The page is growing fast but I wish it was slower and I didn’t have so much to post about regarding a deadly virus that is changing our lives so rapidly. ☹️

-EJ

Link to Abstract

Link to FULL FREE PDF

Cao B, Wang Y, Wen D, et al. A trial of lopinavir–ritonavir in adults hospitalized with severe Covid-19. N Engl J Med. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2001282.

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COVID-19: Airborne or Droplet Precautions

This is a widely contested topic that I feel we still do not know the full answer on, but I am feeling better about.

As of right now, though, it seems hospital administrators have a leg to stand on when they recommend face masks for the majority of cases and N95's/respirators for NIV, intubations, bronchs, nebs, etc. I don't know if this is an official recommendation by any agency, but patients who have COVID-19 or are being ruled out for this should wear a mask in the hospital and outside the hospital. 

The flip flopping of policies occurs as we learn more data. It seems shady to me that they flipped their policies as shortages occurred, but it seems as if it's defensible at this time.

WHO: The February 27, 2020 guidance paper states:

"Healthcare workers involved in the direct care of patients should use the following PPE: gowns, gloves, medical mask and eye protection (goggles or face shield)."

"Specifically, for aerosol-generating procedures (e.g., tracheal intubation, non-invasive ventilation, tracheostomy, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, manual ventilation before intubation, bronchoscopy) healthcare workers should use respirators, eye protection, gloves and gowns; aprons should also be used if gowns are not fluid resistant."

CDC: updated recommendations on March 10, 2020:

"Based on local and regional situational analysis of PPE supplies, facemasks are an acceptable alternative when the supply chain of respirators cannot meet the demand.
During this time, available respirators should be prioritized for procedures that are likely to generate respiratory aerosols, which would pose the highest exposure risk to HCP."

Essentially, they are acknowledging that we are being put at risk due to the lack of masks.

The most recent stir and adding to the controversy was a recent publication NEJM published on 3/17/20 which states:

"SARS-CoV-2 remained viable in aerosols throughout the duration of our experiment (3 hours)"

"The half-lives of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-1 were similar in aerosols, with median estimates of approximately 1.1 to 1.2 hours"

"Our results indicate that aerosol and fomite transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is plausible, since the virus can remain viable and infectious in aerosols for hours and on surfaces up to days (depending on the inoculum shed)"

The key point is that the authors went out of their way to both nebulize the virus AND fed it into a Goldberg drum to further disperse it (I don't know what that is and google wasn't too helpful).

It is admittedly outside my scope of knowledge how to interpret the titers in the air, but it seems as if it's there and transmissible to us, the boots on the ground. I cannot make a concrete declaration based on my level of knowledge. I'd welcome your interpretation. I am curious to see how the ever-intelligent people in the CDC and WHO react to this data and possibly adapt their recommendations. 

We should also reach out to the local news agencies to assist us in asking the N95 hoarders to donate their extras to the local hospitals. We need to protect each other. 

-EJ

Link to the WHO Interim Guidance Paper

Link to the CDC Information

Link to the NEJM Abstract

Link to the NEJM PDF

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How to take off your PPE after caring for COVID-19 patients

The first time I walked into a the room of a patient with suspected COVID-19 I was very methodical with every step. I had done my required reading. I had an N95, a face shield over that, a hair net, the stupid yellow contact gown, double gloves. At the same time I felt naked. I had seen the people on TV and in other countries in basically hazmat suits. The uncertainty was driving me bonkers but I needed to take care of the patient ASAP. The nurse and I got everything together and we went in. We took care of the patient. When it was time to come out, the same methodical steps took place. But somewhat in reverse. It’s hot in there with all that gear when you have to put on the sterile gown for procedures and the sterile gloves on top of my double gloves. Since the I have walked into a number of rooms and am getting the feeling that this is going to be the new normal for the next few months. I felt it was important to do a second post today to share the CDC guidelines on how to put on and take off the personal protective equipment. I have attached the images from this as well. Feel free to share with your friends.

I was inspired to create this post after seeing @doctorwarsgame’s similar post. I must give him credit. I also sent meme, as I am not someone who creates them on this medium, to @bedsideroundz for his approval. He actually was the one who suggested that I use it to teach people the correct way to do it.

Thank you all for your support.

CDC Guidelines for Healthcare Personnel PDF

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Airway pressure release ventilation

We are already seeing severe ARDS from these patients infected with COVID-19. There's discussion out there regarding VV-ECMO, proning, and numerous other strategies to help oxygenate and ventilate our patients. There are numerous different modes on the ventilator to help us achieve these goals but I have found none to be more polarizing than airway pressure release ventilation which is also called APRV. On the Servo vents this is called BiVent (just adding to the confusion of terminology).

Since we are in the process of contemplating providing our patients with anti-retrovirals and anti-malarial drugs, I feel that some of us should reach out of our comfort zone and familiarize ourselves with APRV. If I'm being completely honest, I haven't needed this mode of ventilation much since fellowship. I haven't had many patients in whom I have had such a hard time oxygenating them where I have to reach for this mode. I tend to paralyze patients which is definitely NOT recommended in patients with APRV therefore ameliorating the benefit. I am aware of the PETAL study (Early Neuromuscular Blockage in the ARDS, NEJM 5/2019) which did not show a benefit to paralytics, by the way. My experience is therefore limited, thankfully for my patients who haven't needed me to venture down this road.

The data for APRV is not the most robust, but this recently published review this month contains some great tables and recommendations including the indications and contraindications for APRV, how to set up the vent to initiate APRV, how to troubleshoot the vent depending on the different physiological derangements (I find hypercapnia to be the most common of these personally), and lastly how to wean the vent. I feel the authors did a great job and definitely a good resource to have in your article collection. Stay safe everyone!

A hat tip to the authors.

-EJ

Link to Abstract

Link to FULL FREE ARTICLE

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