Search

Background: Acute kidney Injury associated with Coronavirus disease COVID-19 appeared to negatively influence clinical outcomes and is found to be associated with significant risk of death. This retrospective study aimed to describe the incidence of Acute Kidney Injury, its associations with clinical characteristics and outcomes among COVID-19 patients in Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital, a tertiary infectious disease hospital in Nepal., Methods: A cross-sectional study was done where. Medical and lab records of reverse transcriptase Polymerase chain reaction positive COVID-19 inpatients, admitted between April 2021 to July 2021 were reviewed. It represented the second wave of wave of coronavirus pandemic caused by the delta strain. Patients aged less than 18 years, pregnant females and patients with known chronic kidney disease were excluded Results: Of 393 admissions, 83 (21.1%) patients developed Acute Kidney Injury. Characteristics found to have significant association with development of AKI was age (p <0.001), multiple co morbidities (2 or more) (p <0.001), use of mechanical ventilation (p <0.001), lymphopenia (p<0.001), Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio (p =0.001) and d-dimer levels (p <0.001). Mortality was found to be significantly higher in COVID-19 patients with AKI compared to COVID-19 patients without AKI ((36.14% vs 15.8%, p value <0.01)). The median duration of hospital stay for patients with AKI was higher than for patients without AKI (10 days vs 6 days,p <0.01)., Conclusions: AKI develops in a sizeable percentage of patients with COVID-19 and is significantly associated with increasing age, multiple comorbidities, increased biomarkers, use of mechanical ventilation and is associated with poor outcome in terms of mortality and morbidity.

Background: Current literatures seem devoted only on relating climate change with malaria. Overarching all possible environmental determinants of malaria prevalence addressed by scanty literature in Nepal is found apposite research at this moment. This study aims to explore the environmental determinants of malaria prevalence in western Nepal., Methods: Cross-sectional data collected from community people were used to identify the environmental determinants of malaria prevalence in western Nepal. Probit and logistic regressions are used for identifying determinants., Results: The results reveal that environmental variables: winter temperature (aOR: 2.14 [95% CI: 1.00-4.56]), flooding (aOR: 2.45 [CI: 1.28-4.69]), heat waves (aOR: 3.14 [CI: 1.16-8.46]) and decreasing river water level (aOR: 0.25 [CI: 0.13-0.47]) are found major factors to influence malaria prevalence in western Nepal. Besides, pipeline drinking water (aOR: 0.37 [0.17-0.81]), transportation facility (aOR: 1.18 [1.07-1.32]) and awareness programs (aOR: 2.62 [0.03-6.65]) are exigent social issues to influence malaria prevalence in Nepal. To be protected from disease induced by environmental problems, households have used extra season specific clothes, iron nets and mosquito nets, use of insecticide in cleaning toilet and so on., Conclusions: Adaptation mechanism against these environmental issues together with promoting pipeline drinking water, transportation facility and awareness programs are the important in malaria control in Nepal. Government initiation with incentivized adaptation mechanism for the protection of environment with caring household attributes possibly help control malaria in western Nepal.

Background: Patients have significant pain following laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Several modalities have been used to manage this pain. Subcostal transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block is one of the components of multimodal analgesia and has been described as an effective technique for postoperative pain management. This study compares the impact of subcostal TAP block with port site local infiltration following laparoscopic cholecystectomy for postoperative pain and opioid consumption., Methods: This is a prospective, randomized, interventional study. Sixty patients were enrolled and divided into two groups having 30 patients in each group. Group A received bilateral ultrasound guided subcostal TAP block with 10 mL of 0.25% bupivacaine after the completion of surgery. Group B received similar amount of local anesthetic infiltrated over all the laparoscopic port sites. Pain at rest and on movement was assessed using VAS scale in post-operative period at 0 min, 30 min, 2, 4, 6, 12 and 24 hours. Time of first rescue analgesic requirement and total opioid consumption over 24 hours were recorded., Results: Patients receiving Subcostal TAP block had reduced postoperative pain as compared to port site infiltration and statistically significantly in first two hours after surgery. The 24 hours opioids consumption was significantly less (125mg ±25.42 versus 175mg ±25.42, p <0.001) in Subcostal TAP block group. Time for request of first rescue analgesic was prolonged in patients receiving the Subcostal TAP block (3.20±0.84 hours vs 1.70±0.65 hours, p <0.001)., Conclusions: Ultrasound guided bilateral Subcostal TAP block provides effective post-operative analgesia and reduces opioid consumption in patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy.