Timing, Complications, and Safety of Tracheotomy in Critically Ill Patients With COVID-19.

Importance: The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to unprecedented needs for invasive ventilation, with 10% to 15% of intubated patients subsequently requiring tracheotomy.

Objective: To assess the complications, safety, and timing of tracheotomy performed for critically ill patients with COVID-19.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This prospective cohort study assessed consecutive patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) who had COVID-19 that required tracheotomy.

In-vitro comparison of hydroxyapatite coatings obtained by cold spray and conventional thermal spray technologies.

Hydroxyapatite (HA) coatings onto Ti6Al4V alloy substrates were obtained by several thermal spray technologies: atmospheric plasma spray (APS) and high velocity oxy fuel (HVOF), together with the cold spray (CS) technique. A characterization study has been performed by means of surface and microstructure analyses, as well as biological performance. In-vitro tests were performed with primary human osteoblasts at 1, 7 and 14 days of cell culture on substrates.

X-ray microtomographic characterization of highly rough titanium cold gas sprayed coating for identification of effective surfaces for osseointegration.

A highly rough titanium coating obtained by Cold Gas Spray (CGS) has been characterized by means of high-resolution 3D microtomography (micro-CT) with the aim to evaluate its open and close porosity for possible use in orthopaedic implants to promote osseointegration. Micro-CT allowed a qualitative and quantitative description of the main features, morphology of the pores and surface roughness of the coating. Several numerical values were obtained to describe size, form and distribution of the closed/inner and open/outer pores.

Porous titanium-hydroxyapatite composite coating obtained on titanium by cold gas spray with high bond strength for biomedical applications.

The lack of bioactivity of titanium (Ti) is one of the main drawbacks for its application in biomedical implants since it can considerable reduce its osseointegration capacities. One strategy to overcome this limitation is the coating of Ti with hydroxyapatite (HA), which presents similar chemical composition than bone. Nonetheless, most of the strategies currently used generate a non-stable coating and may produce the formation of amorphous phases when high temperatures are used.

In-vitro study of hierarchical structures: Anodic oxidation and alkaline treatments onto highly rough titanium cold gas spray coatings for biomedical applications.

Hierarchical structures were obtained applying two different nanotexturing surface treatments onto highly rough commercial pure titanium coatings by cold spray: (i) anodic oxidation and (ii) alkaline treatments. An extended surface characterization in terms of topography, composition, and wettability has been performed to understand how those parameters affect to cell response. Primary human osteoblasts extracted from knee were seeded onto the as-sprayed titanium surface before and after the nanotexturing treatments.