CASE PRESENTATION: A 33-year-old active paraplegic patient T1 Association Impairment Scale A underwent an elective suprapubic catheter (SPC) placement for bladder management. The surgery was done under general anaesthesia and was uneventful. Four hours after surgery, he developed haematuria and multiple blood clots in the urine, which eventually caused blockage of the SPC and resulted in symptomatic AD. The clots and blockage persisted, which continued to trigger repeated episodes of increased blood pressure (BP) and AD. Despite medical treatment with sublingual nitrate to lower the increased BP, the patient subsequently developed massive left ICH presenting with right upper limb weakness, facial asymmetry and inability to speak. He continued to have fluctuating BP measurements for 11 days post event with severe hypertensive and hypotensive episodes. This presented a challenge in the BP management as well as post-ICH management. He underwent an intensive neurorehabilitation programme as soon as the BP had stabilized.
DISCUSSION: Severe neurological complications of AD are rare. In this case report, we highlight the importance of close monitoring of BP and AD symptoms after an SPC procedure, the challenges in BP management and the subsequent importance of an early rehabilitation programme after ICH secondary to uncontrolled AD.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: A COVID-19 healthcare worker surveillance programme was implemented in University Malaya Medical Centre. The programme involved four teams: contact tracing, risk assessment, surveillance and outbreak investigation. Daily symptom surveillance was conducted over fourteen days for healthcare workers who were assessed to have low-, moderate- and high-risk of contracting COVID-19. A cross-sectional analysis was conducted for data collected over 24 weeks, from the 6th of March 2020 to the 20th of August 2020.
RESULTS: A total of 1,174 healthcare workers were placed under surveillance. The majority were females (71.6%), aged between 25 and 34 years old (64.7%), were nursing staff (46.9%) and had no comorbidities (88.8%). A total of 70.9% were categorised as low-risk, 25.7% were moderate-risk, and 3.4% were at high risk of contracting COVID-19. One-third (35.2%) were symptomatic, with the sore throat (23.6%), cough (19.8%) and fever (5.0%) being the most commonly reported symptoms. A total of 17 healthcare workers tested positive for COVID-19, with a prevalence of 0.3% among all the healthcare workers. Risk category and presence of symptoms were associated with a positive COVID-19 test (p<0.001). Fever (p<0.001), cough (p = 0.003), shortness of breath (p = 0.015) and sore throat (p = 0.002) were associated with case positivity.
CONCLUSION: COVID-19 symptom surveillance and risk-based assessment have merits to be included in a healthcare worker surveillance programme to safeguard the health of the workforce.