Reallocation of Carotid Surgery Activity with the Support of Telemedicine in a COVID-Free Clinic during COVID-19 Pandemic

The aim of this study is to report the reallocation of carotid surgery activity with the support of telemedicine in a COVID-free clinic during COVID-19 pandemic. Patients with symptomatic carotid stenosis or asymptomatic vulnerable plaques were reallocated to a COVID-free private clinic which began to cooperate with the National Health System during the emergency. Quick training of staff nurses was performed. Surgeons moved to the COVID-19 free clinic. Remote cerebral monitoring was performed with the support of telemedicine. Twenty-four patients underwent standard carotid endarterectomy with eversion technique. Five patients (20.8%) had recently symptomatic stenosis, and the remaining 19 patients (79.2%) had a risky asymptomatic carotid stenosis. No technical issue with remote cerebral monitoring was detected. In the early postoperative period, no neurological/systemic complication was observed. Three patients under dual antiplatelet therapy (12.5%) had neck hematoma. All patients were discharged the day after surgery. In our preliminary experience, reallocation in a COVID-free clinic allowed us to maintain a functioning carotid surgery activity during COVID-19 pandemic. A multidisciplinary approach and support of telemedicine were crucial. Training of unskilled nurse staff was necessary.

Abstract 369: Noninvasive Cerebral Perfusion Pressure and Neurologic Outcome in Post-cardiac Arrest Patients with Targeted Temperature Management

Introduction: Hypoxic ischemic brain injury (HIBI) is the leading cause of mortality and long-term neurologic disability in survivors of cardiac arrest. Recently, the role of cerebral monitoring is emphasized for individualizing therapy and mitigating secondary brain injury in HIBI patients after return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC). The first step of cerebral monitoring is checking the driving force by cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP). However, as CPP is calculated by mean arterial pressure (MAP) minus intracranial pressure (ICP), the process of obtaining ICP is invasive. Noninvasive CPP can be estimated by parameters obtained from transcranial doppler (TCD). Therefore, we aimed to investigate non-invasively measured CPP from TCD and its association with neurologic outcome in post cardiac arrest patients that underwent targeted temperature management (TTM). Methods: This retrospective single-center study included patients who had been treated with TTM following cardiac arrest and who underwent TCD evaluation between July 2017 and July 2019. We aimed to perform TCD evaluation within 48h of ROSC, but sometimes this could not be achieved due to limited resources. Patients with TCD that was performed after 72 hours were excluded. The MFV was calculated using the peak systolic flow velocity (PSV) and the end-diastolic flow velocity (EDV) as below. Two methods of estimating CPP non-invasively was calculated as below.MFV = PSV+(EDVх2) / 3 eCPP_A= MAP*diastolic FVmca/MFVmca + 14eCPP_B= MFVmca*(MAP-DBP)/FVmean-FVdia Results: Table 1. Baseline characteristics of study population Data are presented as mean (standard deviation), number (%) or median (interquartile range).OHCA, out of hospital cardiac arrest; CPR, cardiopulmonary resuscitation; AED, automated external defibrillator; TCD, transcranial doppler; CPP, cerebral perfusion pressure. Table 2. Cut off values and diagnostic values in predicting poor neurologic outcome with 100% specificityCPP, cerebral perfusion pressure. Conclusion: eCPP cut off values of <50 mmHg and <60mmHg predicted poor neurological outcome with high specificity. This study suggests that eCPP obtained from TCD may be feasible to predict neurologic outcome.