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A recent meta-analysis published in the Journal of Medical Virology evaluated the effectiveness of the oral antiviral nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (NR) in high-risk COVID-19 patients. The analysis included 32 studies and found that NR was significantly effective in reducing mortality, hospitalizations, and disease progression compared to standard care, even in highly vaccinated populations with the Omicron variant. However, subgroup analysis indicated that NR was less effective against mortality in vaccinated/boosted patients. Additional meta-regression analyses showed that variations in vaccination coverage did not significantly affect the effectiveness of NR on these outcomes. These findings support the use of NR as a treatment option for high-risk patients. [Extracted from the article]

Objective: In this retrospective cohort study, we aimed to determine the characteristics and outcomes of patients in the emergency department (ED) and wards who required emergency tracheal intubation by the difficult airway response team (DART). Materials and Methods: All patients between 18 and 80 years old receiving emergency tracheal intubation by the DART at a single tertiary referral hospital from January 2014 to December 2016 were reviewed and divided into ward and ED groups. Patient characteristics, comorbidities, indications for intubation, airway maintenance technique, and survival-to-discharge rates were analyzed and compared. Results: Totally, 192 patients (ward, n = 135; ED, n = 57) were eligible for the current study. Compared with the ward group, patients in the ED group were younger (58.9 ± 13 vs. 51.5 ± 15.6 years, P = 0.001), male-predominant (71.1% vs. 87.7%, P = 0.014), and had a higher incidence of trauma (6.7% vs. 22.8%, P = 0.001). The most common indications for tracheal intubation were respiratory distress (52.6%) and cardiac arrest (17.8%) in the ward group, and respiratory distress (31.6%) and airway protection (28.1%) in the ED group. Patients in the ED group received more fiberoptic intubations (42.1% vs. 17.8%, P = 0.039) and had a higher survival-to-discharge rate (87.7% vs. 44.4%, P < 0.001) than those in the ward group. Conclusions: Better recognition of differences in patient characteristics and indications for intubation in different units of the hospital may enable the DART to customize specialized equipment to improve efficiency and implement appropriate strategies for airway rescue to improve patient outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Objective: In this retrospective cohort study, we aimed to determine the characteristics and outcomes of patients in the emergency department (ED) and wards who required emergency tracheal intubation by the difficult airway response team (DART)., Materials and Methods: All patients between 18 and 80 years old receiving emergency tracheal intubation by the DART at a single tertiary referral hospital from January 2014 to December 2016 were reviewed and divided into ward and ED groups. Patient characteristics, comorbidities, indications for intubation, airway maintenance technique, and survival-to-discharge rates were analyzed and compared., Results: Totally, 192 patients (ward, n = 135; ED, n = 57) were eligible for the current study. Compared with the ward group, patients in the ED group were younger (58.9 ± 13 vs. 51.5 ± 15.6 years, P = 0.001), male-predominant (71.1% vs. 87.7%, P = 0.014), and had a higher incidence of trauma (6.7% vs. 22.8%, P = 0.001). The most common indications for tracheal intubation were respiratory distress (52.6%) and cardiac arrest (17.8%) in the ward group, and respiratory distress (31.6%) and airway protection (28.1%) in the ED group. Patients in the ED group received more fiberoptic intubations (42.1% vs. 17.8%, P = 0.039) and had a higher survival-to-discharge rate (87.7% vs. 44.4%, P < 0.001) than those in the ward group., Conclusions: Better recognition of differences in patient characteristics and indications for intubation in different units of the hospital may enable the DART to customize specialized equipment to improve efficiency and implement appropriate strategies for airway rescue to improve patient outcomes., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2019 Tzu Chi Medical Journal.)