Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) venovenous extracorporeal oxygenation: Single community hospital results and insights.

Background: The role of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for patients with refractory respiratory failure due to coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) is still unclear even now over a year into the pandemic. ECMO is becoming more commonplace even at smaller community hospitals. While the advantages of venovenous (VV) ECMO in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) from COVID-19 have not been fully determined, we believe the benefits outweighed the risks in our patient population.

Acute respiratory failure secondary to esophageal dilation from undiagnosed achalasia.

Achalasia is an idiopathic motility disorder causing progressive dysphagia and dilation of the esophagus. Rarely this esophageal dilation can cause acute respiratory insufficiency and/or failure. We describe a 63-year-old woman presenting for total knee arthroplasty in whom induction of anesthesia was complicated by pulmonary aspiration requiring postoperative ventilation, hypotension requiring vasopressor therapy, and postextubation, recurrent, acute respiratory failure.

Acute ischaemic colitis associated with oral phenylephrine decongestant use.

In this case, the authors have presented for the first time that ischaemic colitis may be associated with phenylephrine use. Since phenylephrine is the more common active ingredient in over-the-counter (OTC) cold medications, other presentations may follow this case. A MEDLINE search was performed for all case reports or case series of ischaemic colitis secondary to pseudoephedrine or phenylephrine use published between 1966 and 2013.