According to researchers at the University of Minnesota, if the COVID-19 pandemic courses through the U.S. as it has in other countries, there will be 6 critical patients for each hospital bed. In New York, at an expected peak, the city will need 140,000 beds (though they only currently have 53,000 beds), 40,000 ICU beds, and 30,000 ventilators.
While orthopedic procedures are being delayed, orthopedic staffs in health systems are highly likely to be deputized to fill in for overworked staff. Orthopedic surgeons, nurses and support staff are going to have to go through a crash course on treating patients with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19, the disease the virus causes.
Lynne Peterson has provided the best reporting on the pandemic we’ve seen in her publication, Trends-in-Medicine. She has provided timely and detailed reports. We encourage you to subscribe to her publication. There is a link at the end of this article for that.
On March 24, 2020, Peterson provided an update of the latest treatments and drugs available to physicians to treat patients. The following information is attributable Trends-in-Medicine.
Treating COVID-19
No surprise, treatment ideas, both scientifically based and not, are emerging everywhere. Peterson has put together an excellent and comprehensive summary of the most promising treatments and the companies who are working to move them through the clinical study process.
Probably no compound has captured the world’s attention more than hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine. The compound is flying off the shelves in South Korea and a Chinese health minister openly recommended it.
Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are antimalarial drugs. On YouTube and elsewhere patients are posting their personal experiences. One of the most common reports is about combining these drugs with azithromycin (Pfizer’s Z-Pak) and zinc.
Peterson notes that some doctors, if they could get supplies, started using this combination on March 24.
Regulatory and physician societies have weighed on the use of these antimalarial drugs (including, by the way, mefloquine). Pharmacy boards in at least four states—Idaho, Nevada, Ohio, and Texas—put limits on who can be prescribed these drugs.
The Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) issued a cautionary note with regards to the current spate of COVID-19 treatments saying, in part, that there is insufficient evidence to recommend the use of hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine, Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir, or an anti-IL-6 for COVID-19>
So how should physicians treat their COVID-19 patients?
