Could plasma exchange help save the lives of COVID patients? Let's straighten out some nomenclature first. We all have questions about what is what and there is much confusion. I personally like the say all these words roll off the tongue. Makes you sound smart when you say it. There's more to it than what …
VTE Prophylaxis or Anticoagulation in COVID: Visiting the Guidelines
If you continue reading on this page, you'll note that I have attempted to tackle the whole conundrum of anticoagulation in COVID patient with the pendulum swinging. My first post on the matter was back on 4/6/20 (when this post was initially created) and the second was on 4/12/20. My attempts to keep modifying my …
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Remdesivir in Severe COVID-19
Let's be quite clear here, there's no miracle drug for all this. I am personally not enthusiastic about Remdesivir in Severe COVID-19. I personally have zero experience with Remdesivir at this point in time. Hopefully you all can comment on whether you anecdotally think it works or not. This study was published earlier today in …
Summer heat may help us with COVID! (Hopefully!!)
Summer, my favorite season. It can't get here soon enough. Will summer help us with the coronavirus/COVID and help terminate this thing sooner rather than later? This study was published on April 2nd out of Hong Kong in Lancet Microbe. I believe it may be some good news or I may be too optimistic. This paper …
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Respiratory Management Protocol for SARS-CoV-2 by WeVent
The WeVent team came together to create this respiratory management protocol to help us take care of patients with COVID-19. First of all, a big hat tip to the authors: Aurio Fajardo C; MD. Medicina Interna. Unidad de Paciente Crítico. MsC en Ventilación Mecánica, Universitat de València. MsC en Medicina Intensiva. Grupo Ventilación Mecánica Chile …
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Ivermectin for COVID-19
This is a discussion regarding an in-vitro study of how Ivermectin could potentially work for COVID-19. Give credit where credit is due. This paper was sent to me by @itskatiesway, @bug_drugs, @sanamoh92, @sy_doctornetwork, @paul.neil95, @nascarnora. Thank you all for sending data to me. Also, I am getting somewhere around 50-100 messages per day from the community. …
Hydroxychloroquine & Azithromycin in COVID-19: Analyzing The Data
This first post was published on 4/4/2020 regarding hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin in COVID patients. Other studies will be noted by dates below. I decided to consolidate multiple posts into one for the sake of simplicity. For those of you new to the page/blog, I am a Critical Care physician. My team and I are usually …
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The Cytokine Storm & Tocilizumab in COVID-19 Infections
One of the beauties of practicing in the ICU is that although many of my patients take up a lot of resources, the pharmacy-cost component of it isn't too high. I like my cheap IV fluids, norepinephrine, run-of-the-mill antibiotics, heparin, PPI's, tube feeds, sedation meds, etc. None of these are too outlandishly expensive. People generally …
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Nutrition in the Critically Ill with COVID-19 Infection
We can always count on the ASPEN team to come through for us regarding nutritional recommendations for our patients with COVID-19. A hat tip to them. A hat tip also to my pharmacist teammate, Amanda, for sending this to me (and many other literature goodies). This is free so download your own copy and don't …
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The WHO Strikes Back: Droplet vs. Airborne Precautions
I cannot believe that there is still a mystery from the WHO as to whether COVID is a droplet or airborne virus. The World Health Organization has obtained the paper I referenced yesterday. In addition, the study in the NEJM that I covered on 3/18/2020. Please read the document for yourself. I have provided links, …
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