New research could help clear backlog of surgery since it shows use of airway device in
anaesthetic procedures does not produce aerosols as previously thought - Research also suggests use of high grade PPE needs to be refocused on ward staff who are exposed to coughing patients and more aerosols
2021-07-21
(Press-News.org) New research published in Anaesthesia (a journal of the Association of Anaesthetists) by researchers from the University of Bristol can help to improve the efficiency of surgery and help tackle the growing backlog of surgery caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, the number of patients waiting for routine surgery in the UK has almost doubled with more than 5.3 million people awaiting surgery including more than 300,000 waiting more than a year.
A contributory factor is that COVID-19 precautions have led to many operating theatres working at 75-50% of normal working efficiency. Staff working in operating theatres have been required to take special precautions at the start and end of operations to allow viral particles to disperse from the operating theatre. This is based on the belief that anaesthetic procedures are 'high risk aerosol generating procedures' (AGPs) that produce a mist of small airborne particles called 'aerosols' that increase risk of infection to staff and other patients. These AGPs require the use of high grade personal protective equipment (PPE) and delays of up to 20 min both at the beginning and end of each operation.
New research from Bristol University has shown that routine anaesthetic procedures do not generate these aerosols and so should not be designated as AGPs. The researchers studied insertion and removal of anaesthetic airway tubes - called supraglottic airway devices (SGAs) - which are used in more than one and a half million UK operations each year. Working in an ultra-clean environment, the researchers used a highly sensitive aerosol detector to measure the amount and sizes of aerosol particles produced when the tubes were inserted or removed. The researchers found that the quantity of aerosol produced by inserting the device was no more than during quiet breathing and less than one twentieth of the amount of aerosol produced by a single cough.
The research is part of a wider AERATOR study which is funded by the National Institute for Health Research and UK Research and Innovation and is a collaboration between frontline clinical researchers and scientists from the Bristol Aerosol Centre. Research by the same group has already shown that more invasive anaesthetic interventions (tracheal intubation and extubation) and use of oxygen therapies (high flow nasal oxygen and CPAP) are much lower risk than had been assumed.
The research is described by the team as good news for patients, hospitals and staff.
Study co-author Professor Tim Cook of the University of Bristol and Royal United Hospital NHS Trust, Bath, UK, says: "This new research paves the way for more efficient anaesthesia and surgery. Supraglottic airways are normally used in more than half of all anaesthetics but have been avoided by many anaesthetists during the pandemic. Our research shows that use of these devices does not lead to high levels of aerosols and thus the procedure is not an AGP. Anaesthetists can return to using them and precautions around their use needs to be reviewed and relaxed."
He adds: "For more than a year concerns that basic airway procedures during anaesthesia put staff at risk have led to reduced theatre efficiency and surgical activity. Our research adds to growing evidence of the safety of these procedures and can hasten the return to efficient operating which is essential as we seek to address the backlog of patients awaiting routine surgery."
The research also raises concerns that PPE and other precautions to reduce transmission of infection in hospital may be misdirected.
Lead author Dr Andrew Shrimpton, also of the University of Bristol, adds: "An important aspect of our study is the confirmation that coughing leads to around 25-fold more aerosol than these anaesthetic procedures. This adds to the existing and growing evidence that we need to refocus on the risk caused by coughing patients on hospital wards and away from medical procedures which are increasingly being shown to be lower risk. We are currently focusing excessively on procedures which are low risk. We need to focus more on staff caring for patients who are coughing on general wards where low grade PPE is used commonly for protection."
INFORMATION:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2021-07-21
More than 1.5 million children around the world are estimated to have lost at least one parent, custodial grandparent, or grandparent who lived with them due to death related to COVID-19 during the first 14 months of the pandemic, according to a study published today in The Lancet. The study highlights orphanhood as an urgent and overlooked consequence of the pandemic and emphasizes that providing evidence-based psychosocial and economic support to children who have lost a caregiver must be a key part of responding to the pandemic.
The analysis used mortality and fertility data to model rates of COVID-19-associated orphanhood (death of one or both parents) and deaths of custodial and co-residing grandparents (ages 60-84) from March 1, 2020 to April 30, 2021, across 21 countries. This study ...
2021-07-21
Metabolic bone diseases, including osteoporosis, when bones lose their mass and become so fragile that they could be damaged while sneezing or under little stress, are called the silent epidemic of the 21st century. A person does not even know about his illness before the first symptom - it can be a fracture of the spine or the neck of the hip. According to statistics, every third woman and every fifth man after 50 have osteoporosis. Thus, it is promising to search for and obtain substances and materials for implants that have osteoinductive properties and are capable of initiating the processes of transformation of stem cells into bone.
Certain trace elements, such as calcium and magnesium, influence the processes of bone regeneration ...
2021-07-21
In the early days of the pandemic, scientists at Virginia Tech created a COVID-19 testing laboratory and novel test for the virus from scratch.
They not only developed a test in-house that avoided the reagent supply shortages that hampered testing efforts nationwide, but also used 3D-engineered supplies and stable storage media, enabling samples to be transported to rural sites in Virginia without the need for constant refrigeration.
This novel protocol for transforming a research laboratory into a testing operation capable of processing more than 130,000 ...
2021-07-21
Spider silk is said to be one of the strongest, toughest materials on the Earth. Now engineers at Washington University in St. Louis have designed amyloid silk hybrid proteins and produced them in engineered bacteria. The resulting fibers are stronger and tougher than some natural spider silks.
Their research was published in the journal ACS Nano.
To be precise, the artificial silk -- dubbed "polymeric amyloid" fiber -- was not technically produced by researchers, but by bacteria that were genetically engineered in the lab of Fuzhong Zhang, a professor ...
2021-07-21
ITHACA, N.Y. - Small-scale. Short-lived. All digital. Out of public view. That's how a new form of collective worker resistance is unfolding in China's app-based food delivery economy, new Cornell University research finds.
Though highly fragmented and not always successful, "mini-strikes" by small groups of food couriers - conducted via WeChat - reflect a new form of leverage, suggest Chuxuan "Victoria" Liu and Eli Friedman, associate professor in the ILR School.
Food couriers are able to maintain complete physical invisibility, and each individual worker can 'strike' from anywhere, they write.
The scholars interviewed couriers, in-person and online, who delivered food for Ele.me, an Alibaba-owned company that controlled ...
2021-07-20
Tuesday, July 20, 2021, CLEVELAND: A Cleveland Clinic study demonstrates that adults with obesity lost significantly more weight when they had access to medications for chronic weight management in conjunction with their employer-based weight management program, compared to adults who did not have access to the medications. The study was published in JAMA Network Open.
Obesity is a complex disease that is caused by multiple factors, including genetic, environmental, and biological. A lifestyle intervention with a focus on nutrition and exercise is often not enough to treat obesity, which is a chronic disease that requires long-term therapy. The U.S. Food and Drug ...
2021-07-20
WASHINGTON - A peer-reviewed study by the Environmental Working Group recommends stringent health-based exposure standards for both children and adults for radiofrequency radiation emitted from wireless devices. EWG's children's guideline is the first of its kind and fills a gap left by federal regulators.
The study, published in the journal Environmental Health, relies on the methodology developed by the Environmental Protection Agency to assess human health risks arising from toxic chemical exposures. EWG scientists have applied the same methods to radiofrequency radiation from wireless devices, ...
2021-07-20
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mayo Clinic researchers have found that acute kidney injury associated with COVID-19 resembles sepsis-caused kidney injury, and the immune response triggered by the infection plays a pivotal role.
The findings, published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, also suggest that mitochondrial dysfunction -- a loss of function in cellular energy production -- is commonly found in kidney injury related to COVID-19. More than one-third of hospitalized COVID-19 patients report acute kidney injury, and sudden kidney failure is a risk factor for in-hospital mortality, according to studies published last ...
2021-07-20
The remains of microscopic plankton blooms in near-shore ocean environments slowly sink to the seafloor, setting off processes that forever alter an important record of Earth's history, according to research from geoscientists, including David Fike at Washington University in St. Louis.
Fike is co-author of a new study published July 20 in Nature Communications.
"Our previous work identified the role that changing sedimentation rates had on local versus global controls on geochemical signatures that we use to reconstruct environmental change," said Fike, professor of earth and planetary sciences and director of environmental studies in Arts & Sciences.
"In this study, we investigated organic carbon loading, or how much ...
2021-07-20
Experts say these unexpected healthcare costs may discourage people from seeking recommended preventive care.
Despite a sharp reduction in out-of-pocket (OOP) costs for preventive care since the Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010, patients are still receiving unexpected bills for preventive services that should be free, according to a new study co-authored by a Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) researcher.
Published in the journal Preventive Medicine, study found that total out-of-pocket costs billed for preventive services to Americans with employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) in 2018 ranged from $75.6 million to $219 million, with 1 in 4 patients who used preventive care incurring these charges.
"The ACA enabled great strides in making preventive care free to ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] New research could help clear backlog of surgery since it shows use of airway device in
anaesthetic procedures does not produce aerosols as previously thought - Research also suggests use of high grade PPE needs to be refocused on ward staff who are exposed to coughing patients and more aerosols
