Chest Computed Tomography for Screening Suspected Cases of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Trauma Patients

Abstract

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic.1 Most patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, the etiologic agent of COVID-19, may initially be oligosymptomatic, even those individuals presenting the pulmonary form of the disease. As a result, many trauma patients can arrive at the emergency department without signs or symptoms compatible with COVID-19 and, even so, be active agents for disease transmission.2,3 Pandemics generate socioeconomic crises and may overload the healthcare system, similarly to what might be seen in periods of war. This leads to the need for adjustments in the previously established forms of care, aiming at the rational use of material, physical, and human resources so as to reserve them for a future 1Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, United States 2,3,6,7Department of Surgery, Hospital Do Trabalhador, Curitiba, Brazil 4,5School of Medicine, Universidade Federal Do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil Corresponding Author: Camila R Guetter, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, e-mail: camilaguetter@gmail.com How to cite this article: Guetter CR, Iurkiewiecz RT, Evangelista MS, et al. Chest Computed Tomography for Screening Suspected Cases of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Trauma Patients. Panam J Trauma Crit Care Emerg Surg 2021;10(3):101–106. Source of support: Nil Conflict of interest: None Chest Computed Tomography for Screening Suspected Cases of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Trauma Patients Camila R Guetter1 , Rebeca T Iurkiewiecz2 , Matheus S Evangelista3 , Gabriel M Nogueira4 , Leonardo K Rafael5, Silvania K Pimentel6 , Fabio Henrique De Carvalho7