How Anaesthesiology Helped to Fight the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Portugal.

Introduction: The dissemination of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, namely in Portugal, demanded an organizational and clinical reaction from the Portuguese National Health Service. With the unpredictable impact of COVID-19 infected patients redefining hospital logistics, reducing non-priority elective care and extending the hospital capacity for critical care patients made mobilizing a significant part of human resources a priority. We conducted a national survey to monitor the contribution and the role of anaesthesiologists belonging to the 53 Portuguese National Health Service hospitals in the first wave fight against the pandemic.

Neuroaxial blocks and tattoos: a dilemma?

Purpose: Parturients with lumbar tattoos are often proposed to neuroaxial blocks (NB). There are no guidelines for this situation, and no reports of major complications derived from NB through tattoos. We conducted a survey of a sample of anaesthetists, to find out about their approach when facing NB on parturients with lumbar tattoos.

[The Viriato Study: update of antimicrobial susceptibility data of bacterial pathogens from community-acquired respiratory tract infections in Portugal in 2001 and 2002].

The Viriato Study is a nationwide, prospective, multicenter surveillance study of the antimicrobial susceptibility of bacterial pathogens commonly associated with community-acquired respiratory tract infections in Portugal. In years 2001 and 2002, 31 laboratories participated in the study with a total of 2,600 strains, with testing undertaken in a central laboratory. Of the 486 Streptococcus pyogenes strains isolated from patients with acute tonsillitis all were susceptible to penicillin and other beta-lactams but 21.