Anesthetic Considerations For Covid-19 (Year 2020)

Abstract

In December 2019, patients clustered in Wuhan, China, were identified to have a novel virus now known as COVID-19, a virus from the coronavirus family. This virus has spread all across the world, with close to 8 million confirmed cases and over 432,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths worldwide. This pandemic has rattled the modern era and presented with several new considerations that the anesthesiologist must be aware of. This chapter will cover several anesthetic concerns that involve this virus and all the precautions that one should take during this pandemic. It should be noted that there is new research emerging rapidly about this novel virus, and one can always depend on World Health Organization, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for updated COVID-19 resources for anesthesiologists. This chapter was written in September 2020 and is the first textbook chapter that we know that is available at this time.

Keywords: Axillary nerve block, COVID-19, Driving pressure, ELISA, HMEF, IgG and IgA immune response, Intubation, Lung protection strategies, Low tidal volume, Laryngoscopy, Leukopenia, Nasopharyngeal swab, Plateau pressure, RTPCR, RBD-S protein, VFE.