Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took significant action to help increase the availability of ventilators and accessories, as well as other respiratory devices, during the COVID-19 pandemic to support patients with respiratory failure or difficulty breathing.




“The FDA’s new actions will mean America can make more ventilators during this crisis,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. “Today’s actions are another step by the FDA and HHS to elimin...

Even though no treatments are approved  at the moment for MERS-CoV infection, a combination of lopinavir, ritonavir and interferon beta (LPV/RTV-IFNb) is being tested in humans in Saudi Arabia.Interferons have been proved effective in vitro and in vivo against SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, providing sinergy with lopinavir/ritonavir. Redemsivir has also proved to improve pulmonary function and reduce lung viral loads, both in prophylactic and therapeutic purposes, in mice.The combination LPV/...

French Confirmed COVID-19 patients were included in a single arm protocol from early March to March 16th, to receive 600mg of hydroxychloroquine daily and their viral load in nasopharyngeal swabs was tested daily in a hospital setting. Depending on their clinical presentation, azithromycin was added to the treatment. 
Twenty cases were treated in this study and showed a significant reduction of the viral carriage at D6-post inclusion compared to controls, and much ...

The virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is stable for several hours to days in aerosols and on surfaces, according to a new study from National Institutes of Health, CDC, UCLA and Princeton University scientists in The New England Journal of Medicine. The scientists found that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was detectable in aerosols for up to three hours, up to four hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to two to three days on...

Critical care specialist Roger Seheult, MD illustrates a concise review of the essential skills of mechanical ventilation. We've made this video series free at https://www.medcram.com/courses/COVID...As communities across the world are facing or preparing for increasing numbers of patients in respiratory distress from COVID-19, MedCram has packaged this video series for clinicians and hospitals on the frontlines.  We understand that medical professionals (and students) that don't have signif...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationship between the ABO blood group and the COVID-19 susceptibility. 
DESIGNThe study was conducted by comparing the blood group distribution in 2,173 patients with COVID-19 confirmed by SARS-CoV-2 test from three hospitals in Wuhan and Shenzhen, China with that in normal people from the corresponding regions. Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and 2-tailed χ 2 and a meta-analysis was performed by random effects models. SETTING Three tertiary...

In this lesson we take a look at our basic vent modes that we will most often find being used with our patients.  These basic ventilator modes will form the core understanding of the ways in which we are supporting our patients breathing. We start off talking about the differences between the 2 mains types of ventilation, volume control and pressure control. 
 In this lesson we are going to focus solely on volume control so we move on to talk about the different settings that we will fi...

Due to the urgent need of masks and ventilators parts the European Commission has recently requested to CECIMO, as the European association for additive manufacturing, to address to its memberships and ask for their ability to aid in producing equipment (such as valves, masks or ventilators). Therefore, CECIMO expands the call to all additive manufacturing (AM) companies who have the ability to do so to assist the needs of hospitals all over Europe. 

Consequently, international net...

The situation involving the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve. There is recent evidence suggesting the potential for coronavirus transmission through droplets and perhaps fecal shedding posing potential risks during endoscopy and colonoscopy to other patients, endoscopy personnel and ourselves.




Important information as well as recommendations to consider in your institutions and practices that provide endoscopy and outpatient GI services are provided in this article...

The Spanish Society of Digestive Endoscopy (SEED) published a document about protection recommendations against COVID-19 pandemics in endoscopy units in order to stop the spread of the virus. These recommendations are based on two recent studies (Jinyang Gu et al. & Fei Xiao et al.) which show the potential gastrointestinal infection caused by SARS-CoV-2. Logically, general recommendations about hygiene to control COVID-19 spread are of special importance in this medical area.
Recommen...

While there are no medications currently approved to treat people with the novel coronavirus, there are several therapies being investigated as potential life-saving options. Remdesivir is one of the most promising, with Donald Trump touting the drug during a press conference Thursday.

Remdesivir, which is delivered through an intravenous infusion, was initially developed by the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences to treat Ebola. Although initially promising, it didn’t prove as ...

During this coronavirus crisis, some healthcare professionals are having a breath of hope as they see how some of the severe patients are being extubated successfully, with a favorable diagnosis. “First succesfully extubated patient in a the ICU of Hospital Ramón y Cajal” claimed the Twitter user Chechu Torres.










But this was not the only good news of these last days. Esteban Martín, general surgeon in Hospital Clinico San Carlos, also posted a mes...