An intensivist on a learning frenzy. Caring for the critically ill using evidence-based medicine.
For historical context, today is 11/19/2021 when I have provided a major update to this page with the citations. Like everything else on my page, it is a work-in-progress. The guidelines are still recommending 6mg of dexamethasone per day for oxygen-requiring patients with COVID-19. I have extensively covered the data behind doing so on this …
Continue reading Methylprednisolone in COVID-19: Pulse dose & other regimens
We are individual humans with free will. Today, I made the choice to receive the COVID vaccine. It was not a decision that was made lightly. After all, there are numerous unknowns regarding the vaccine that can only become knowns with time. And right now I feel we do not have a great deal of …
Continue reading The COVID-19 Vaccine: My Personal Decision To Get It
Check out the podcast with my take Convalescent Plasma from this article. See the article used for 4/1/22 update in the citations. https://youtu.be/9Jyk2MEtGYc Check out my other COVID-19 related posts HERE. Citations for Convalescent Plasma Simonovich VA, Burgos Pratx LD, Scibona P, Beruto MV, Vallone MG, Vázquez C, Savoy N, Giunta DH, Pérez LG, Sánchez …
Continue reading Convalescent Plasma in COVID-19 Severe Pneumonia: PlasmAr
Could a CBC w/diff tell us who's going to do poorly with COVID? Using the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio could be quite helpful. Can we identify who’s going to get incredibly ill and who isn’t from COVID? I know we struggle with this significantly as we make phone calls to family members every single day …
Continue reading Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR): Predicting Outcomes in COVID
I always like to clarify that I am an ICU physician and not an outpatient physician. I personally have never written for fluvoxamine in my career and have never provided it to a COVID patient. That being said, I feel much of the help we need regarding therapies for COVID are to prevent these folks …
Continue reading Fluvoxamine & COVID: A Potential Outpatient Option
Addendum: As data changes, perspectives should change, too. This post on aspirin and COVID was initially posted on 10/25/20. Since then more robust data has been published. I have left my perspective up on this page for the sake of transparency. The original post starts now. Let's answer the first question these academic elites will …
Continue reading Aspirin & COVID-19: Does it Decrease the Severity of Illness?
The stories of COVID patients spontaneously meeting their demise in the non-ICU and non-stepdown units have decreased substantially during the course of the pandemic. My non-scientific rationale for this is that we're getting better at anti-coagulating our patients and therefore decreasing the incidence of the pro-thrombotic sequelae of COVID. That being said, when these patients …
Continue reading Cardiac Arrest & COVID: A Very Poor Combination
This page contains links to the different papers that have been published during the pandemic regarding the utilization of Tocilizumab in treating COVID. Citations for Tocilizumab papers Published on 12/17/2020Salama C, Han J, Yau L, Reiss WG, Kramer B, Neidhart JD, Criner GJ, Kaplan-Lewis E, Baden R, Pandit L, Cameron ML, Garcia-Diaz J, Chávez V, …
Continue reading Tocilizumab in COVID: The Data is Trickling Out
I remember like it was yesterday the first COVID patient who I intubated. I was scared. Heck, I still have a healthy respect for the procedure because these patients don’t do well on the vent. In addition, they tend to tank their O2 sats as soon as the RSI drugs kick in. Everything needs to …
Continue reading Intubation/Extubation: a High-Risk Aerosol Generating COVID Procedure?
Allow me to start off with a disclaimer. I favor cheap and readily available therapies over expensive therapeutics. There has been a lot of talk about Vitamin D and it's relationship with COVID-19. Honestly too much for me to get into. It seems as if there's something new every day. What we lack, though, is …
Continue reading Vitamin D for COVID-19: Are we missing a potential therapeutic?