Mortality and pulmonary complications in patients undergoing surgery with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection: an international cohort study

Background: The impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on postoperative recovery needs to be understood to inform clinical decision making during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study reports 30-day mortality and pulmonary complication rates in patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods: This international, multicentre, cohort study at 235 hospitals in 24 countries included all patients undergoing surgery who had SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed within 7 days before or 30 days after surgery. The primary outcome measure was 30-day postoperative mortality and was assessed in all enrolled patients. The main secondary outcome measure was pulmonary complications, defined as pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, or unexpected postoperative ventilation. Findings: This analysis includes 1128 patients who had surgery between Jan 1 and March 31, 2020, of whom 835 (74·0%) had emergency surgery and 280 (24·8%) had elective surgery. SARS-CoV-2 infection was confirmed preoperatively in 294 (26·1%) patients. 30-day mortality was 23·8% (268 of 1128). Pulmonary complications occurred in 577 (51·2%) of 1128 patients; 30-day mortality in these patients was 38·0% (219 of 577), accounting for 81·7% (219 of 268) of all deaths. In adjusted analyses, 30-day mortality was associated with male sex (odds ratio 1·75 [95% CI 1·28–2·40], p\textless0·0001), age 70 years or older versus younger than 70 years (2·30 [1·65–3·22], p\textless0·0001), American Society of Anesthesiologists grades 3–5 versus grades 1–2 (2·35 [1·57–3·53], p\textless0·0001), malignant versus benign or obstetric diagnosis (1·55 [1·01–2·39], p=0·046), emergency versus elective surgery (1·67 [1·06–2·63], p=0·026), and major versus minor surgery (1·52 [1·01–2·31], p=0·047). Interpretation: Postoperative pulmonary complications occur in half of patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection and are associated with high mortality. Thresholds for surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic should be higher than during normal practice, particularly in men aged 70 years and older. Consideration should be given for postponing non-urgent procedures and promoting non-operative treatment to delay or avoid the need for surgery. Funding: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland, Bowel and Cancer Research, Bowel Disease Research Foundation, Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeons, British Association of Surgical Oncology, British Gynaecological Cancer Society, European Society of Coloproctology, NIHR Academy, Sarcoma UK, Vascular Society for Great Britain and Ireland, and Yorkshire Cancer Research

The effect of oxygen vacancies on water wettability of transition metal based SrTiO

Understanding the structural, physical and chemical properties of the surface and interfaces of different metal-oxides and their possible applications in photo-catalysis and biology is a very important emerging research field. Motivated in this direction, this article would enable understanding of how different fluids, particularly water, interact with oxide surfaces. We have studied the water contact angle of 3d transition metal oxide thin films of SrTiO[subcript 3], and of 4f rare-earth oxide thin films of Lu2O[subcript 3]. These metal oxides were grown using pulsed laser deposition and they are atomically flat and with known orientation and explicitly characterized for their structure and composition. Further study was done on the effects of oxygen vacancies on the water contact angle of the 3d and 4f oxides. For 3d SrTiO[subcript 3] oxide with oxygen vacancies, we have observed an increase in hydroxylation with consequent increase of wettability which is in line with the previous reports whereas an interesting opposite trend was seen in the case of rare-earth Lu2O[subcript 3] oxide. Density functional theory simulations of water interaction on the above mentioned systems have also been presented to further substantiate our experimental findings.United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Science (ontract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231

Robust resistive memory devices using solution-processable metal-coordinated azo aromatics

10.1038/nmat5009Nature Materials161216 - 122

Direct Growth of Wafer-Scale, Transparent, p‑Type Reduced-Graphene-Oxide-like Thin Films by Pulsed Laser Deposition

10.1021/acsnano.9b08916ACS Nano1433290 - 329

Origin and Quenching of Novel ultraviolet and blue emission in NdGaO3: Concept of Super-Hydrogenic Dopants.

In this study we report the existence of novel ultraviolet (UV) and blue emission in rare-earth based perovskite NdGaO3 (NGO) and the systematic quench of the NGO photoluminescence (PL) by Ce doping. Study of room temperature PL was performed in both single-crystal and polycrystalline NGO (substrates and pellets) respectively. Several NGO pellets were prepared with varying Ce concentration and their room temperature PL was studied using 325 nm laser. It was found that the PL intensity shows a systematic quench with increasing Ce concentration. XPS measurements indicated that nearly 50% of Ce atoms are in the 4+ state. The PL quench was attributed to the novel concept of super hydrogenic dopant (SHD)", where each Ce4+ ion contributes an electron which forms a super hydrogenic atom with an enhanced Bohr radius, due to the large dielectric constant of the host. Based on the critical Ce concentration for complete quenching this SHD radius was estimated to be within a range of 0.85 nm and 1.15 nm whereas the predicted theoretical value of SHD radius for NdGaO3 is ~1.01 nm

Intrinsic hydrophilic nature of epitaxial thin-film of rare-earth oxide grown by pulsed laser deposition

10.1039/c7nr06642bNanoscale103356 - 336