DOCTORS at Cape Town’s top teaching hospitals are changing their approach to treating severely ill Covid-19 patients, placing them on their stomachs and providing them with high-flow oxygen therapy to assist their breathing instead of putting them on mechanical ventilators.
The change has been driven by mounting evidence of high mortality rates among Covid-19 patients who are ventilated, which international studies show range from 60% to 95%.
A small local study by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) found that nine out of 10 public hospital patients who were put on ventilators did not survive.
SOURCE: www.businesslive.co.za (paywall)
Also see letter in the SA Medical Journal: http://www.samj.org.za/index.php/sam...cle/view/12941
The change has been driven by mounting evidence of high mortality rates among Covid-19 patients who are ventilated, which international studies show range from 60% to 95%.
A small local study by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) found that nine out of 10 public hospital patients who were put on ventilators did not survive.
SOURCE: www.businesslive.co.za (paywall)
Also see letter in the SA Medical Journal: http://www.samj.org.za/index.php/sam...cle/view/12941