A Mini-review about Concomitant Burn and COVID-19

Abstract

COVID-19 can cause different catastrophic events and mortalities. Therefore, burn hospitals strategies changed during regional peak of COVID-19 pandemic in the world. Some outpatient strategies were introduced to minimize the contact with infected patients. However, admission strategies were based on the severity of COVID-19 symptoms and also severity of burn injuries. The policy for admission to give inpatient care relates to history, symptoms and COVID-19 PCR results. If all the mentioned criteria were negative, the burn patient was admitted to GREEN area or ward. If the patient was suspected or positive for COVID-19, then would be admitted to RED area or ward. Given that some patients may be carriers without specific symptoms, considering a YELLOW area or ward seems logical for these groups. In GREEN areas one care giver for each adult and two care givers for each pediatric patient were allowed. For all care givers wearing medical masks were obligatory. All patients, care givers and staffs were under constant surveillance for fever and other symptoms. In RED areas no visitors were allowed and for each patient one nurse was assigned in BICU. All elective surgeries were stopped and other procedures were divided to emergency and semi-emergency. Strategies for facing COVID-19 surges especially new variants need to continuously evolve. Changing of infectivity rate, manifestations, resistance to different vaccine and duration of viral shedding necessitate modification of principles according to data collected from involving countries.