Abstract

  The lightening pace of spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) has made the whole world come to a standstill. The rising numbers of the people affected with this viral infection, despite adhering to the proper preventive measure guidelines has evoked a global sensation. The abundance of Corona virus (SARS-CoV2), the causative virus, in the nasal and salivary secretions in the infected has got serious and obvious relationship to the dental professionals. It becomes the moral responsibility of the Maxillofacial Surgeon to identify such patients who are infected, and avoidance of the spread of the infection. Thus, participating in the efforts to curb the spread of overwhelming infection and safeguarding the unaffected public who seek dental attention. This article aims to highlight the protocols to be followed in treating patients in an outbreak of COVID-19 virus from the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon’s point of view.

Clinical Relevance: The 62-year-old ENT specialist Liang Wudong died on Saturday morning, 25th January 2020 as reported by the Chinese Global Times website. Liang’s death highlighted the pressure faced by medical staff in the state as social media was flooded with posts showing exhausted workers struggling to cope [1].

   Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons need to be aware and prepared for tackling any impending infectious disease challenge as might be the case in the current outbreak of SARS-Cov2 transmission and its associated Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that can be lifethreatening to susceptible patients.

Keywords: Coronavirus; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Virus; Infection; Airway Maintenance; Craniomaxillofacial Trauma; PPE; Aerosolization

References

1. Coronavirus outbreak: doctor in Wuhan hospital dies as army medics flown in.
2. Wax RS and Christian MD. “Practical recommendations for critical care and anesthesiology teams caring for novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) patients”. Canadian Journal of Anesthesia (2020).
3. Lan L., et al. “Positive RT-PCR Test Results in Patients Recovered From COVID-19”. Journal of the American Medical Association (2020).
4. Zou L., et al. “SARS-CoV-2 Viral Load in Upper Respiratory Specimens of Infected Patients”. New England Journal of Medicine 12 (2020): 1177-1179.
5. van Doremalen N., et al. “Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARSCoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1”. New England Journal of Medicine (2020).

Other Resources

• AO CMF International Task Force Recommendations on Best Practices for Maxillofacial Procedures during COVID-19 Pandemic (2020).
• University of Stanford Commentary on Nasal Procedures in the COVID-19 Era (Stanford University SOM, Depts. of Oto-HNS & Neurosurgery) (2020).
• Lu D., et al. “Integrated infection control strategy to minimize nosocomial infection of coronavirus disease 2019 among ENT healthcare workers”. Journal of Hospital Infection (2020).
• Guidance for Surgical Tracheostomy and Tracheostomy Tube Change during the COVID-19 Pandemic (ENT UK) (2020).
• British Association of Head & Neck Oncologists – Statement on COVID-19 (BAHNO) (2020).
• Guidance for ENT surgeons during the COVID-19 pandemic (Australian Society of Oto HNS) (2020).
• Ueda M., et al. “Managing Cancer Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Agility and Collaboration Toward a Common Goal”. Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (2020).

Citation

Citation: Sundaram Rajaram., et al. “Protocols during COVID-19 Outbreak- A Maxillofacial Surgeon’s Perspective”. Acta Scientific Dental Sciences 4.5 (2020): 28-31.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Sundaram Rajaram., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.