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Houston Graversen posted an update 2 days, 8 hours ago
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) results from infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It was first reported in Wuhan, China in patients suffering from severe pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome and has now grown into the first pandemic in over 100 years. Patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 develop arterial thrombosis including stroke, myocardial infarction and peripheral arterial thrombosis, all of which result in poor outcomes despite maximal medical, endovascular, and microsurgical treatment compared with non-COVID-19-infected patients. In this review we provide a brief overview of SARS-CoV-2, the infectious agent responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, and describe the mechanisms responsible for COVID-19-associated coagulopathy. Finally, we discuss the impact of COVID-19 on ischemic stroke, focusing on large vessel occlusion.Supraglottitis is an ear, nose and throat emergency where swelling of the laryngeal structures can threaten to fatally obstruct the airway. Most cases of supraglottitis are of infective origin but other rarer causes have been documented. We present two patients who presented with stridor and were found to have supraglottic oedema on fibreoptic nasolaryngoscopy. Both patients presented with odynophagia and progressive dyspnoea and were initially medically managed to stabilise their airway. This included intravenous steroids, nebulised epinephrine and intravenous antibiotics. After this initial treatment they both required investigation and optimisation of their underlying medical conditions (rheumatoid arthritis with possible systemic lupus erythematosus and nephrotic syndrome) as more definitive management.For patients whose vasculitis is managed with biologic medications, no reports or evidence-based guidance exists regarding the perioperative management of microvascular flaps. We present a case of a 78-year-old patient with Takayasu’s arteritis (TA) and diabetes mellitus who was taking infliximab and underwent wide local excision of squamous cell carcinoma, craniectomy and reconstruction with a latissimus dorsi flap. TA, an immune-mediated large cell vasculitis characterised by granuloma formation, tends to affect larger vessels and aortic branches. The typical localisation of this condition raises concerns about potentially compromised pedicle and recipient vessels (ie, superficial temporal arteries), which could hinder postoperative flap success. Vevorisertib in vivo Discontinuation of infliximab 4 weeks before surgery and resumption 6 weeks after led to favourable results. This case addresses the gap in the literature concerning stopping and restarting biologic drugs in the perioperative setting and documents a successful course of a microvascular procedure in a patient with vasculitis.An 11-year-old boy presented with features resembling those described in health alerts on Paediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome Temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 (PIMS-TS), including persistent fever, haemodynamic instability and abdominal pain. Laboratory tests, including raised inflammatory markers, D-dimer, troponin and a coagulopathy, were consistent with PIMS-TS. Our patient required transfer to the paediatric intensive care unit; an echocardiography revealed left ventricular dysfunction. He was treated with intravenous immunoglobulins (Igs), corticosteroids and aspirin, with full resolution of clinical symptoms. A follow-up echocardiogram 1 month after discharge was unremarkable.Three SARS-CoV-2 PCRs on respiratory samples, taken over the initial 4-day period, were negative, as was a SARS-CoV-2 PCR on faeces 1 month after presentation; titres of IgG were clearly elevated. The negative PCRs in the presence of elevated titres of IgG suggest that the inflammatory syndrome might have developed in a late phase of COVID-19 infection when the virus was no longer detectable in the upper airway.A 30-year-old woman was referred to the ear, nose and throat clinic by her primary care physician for a 10-year history of an asymptomatic, large, right-sided neck mass. On examination, the patient had a palpable, non-tender, five-by-four centimetre, mobile, right-sided level II neck mass. CT scan with intravenous contrast showed an enhancing mass with multiple fluid cavities, splaying the external carotid and internal carotid arteries, concerning for a carotid body tumour. Patient was then referred to interventional radiology for angiography and embolisation prior to definitive surgical excision. However, when the mass was then excised surgically, final pathology identified the mass as a ganglioneuroma. Patient recovered well postoperatively with some ptosis of the right eye and symptoms consistent with first bite syndrome, treated with conservative measures.Red blood cell (RBC) membrane disorders are predominantly caused by mutations resulting in decreased RBC deformability and permeability. We present a family in which, the proband and his daughter presented with pseudohypokalaemia. Studies on the temperature dependence of pseudohypokalaemia suggested a maximum decrease in serum potassium when whole blood is stored at 37°C. Routine haematology suggested mild haemolysis with a hereditary spherocytosis phenotype. These two cases present a novel variant in temperature-dependent changes in potassium transport. A new variant was identified in the SLC4A1 gene which codes for band 3 protein (anion exchanger 1) in RBC membrane which may contribute to the phenotype. This is the first report of familial pseudohypokalaemia associated with changes in RBC membrane morphology. The clinical implications of pseudohypokalaemia are that it can lead to inappropriate investigation or treatment. However, many questions remain to be solved and other RBC membrane protein genes should be studied.A 75-year-old woman was admitted to hospital with haemoptysis, fever and shortness of breath. She had undergone a right video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery upper lobectomy for an apical lung cancer 4 weeks earlier, and had been treated with antibiotics for 1 week prior to admission for a suspected postoperative lung abscess. Review of preoperative imaging found that she possessed a lobar pulmonary artery variant, with postoperative imaging confirming that the right lower lobe segmental pulmonary artery had been divided alongside the upper lobe vessels. The diagnosis of a lung abscess was thus revised to a cavitating pulmonary infarct. There are numerous variations of the pulmonary vasculature, all of which have the potential to cause a range of serious vascular complications if not appreciated preoperatively. Measures to mitigate the risk of complications resulting from vascular anomalies should be considered by both radiologists and surgeons, with effective lines of communication essential to safe working.