Background Airway management for thoracic surgery represents a high risk setting for SARS-CoV-2 infection diffusion due to complex and invasive airway instrumentation and techniques. Results An 18-item questionnaire was submitted to the 56 members of the Thoracic subcommittee of the SIAARTI Cardio-Thoraco-Vascular Research Group to provide a snapshot of current situation and national variability of devices and procedures for airway management during the COVID-19 pandemic. The response rate was 64%. Eighty-three percent of anesthetists declared that they modified their airway management strategies. The Hospital Management considered necessary to provide a complete level 3 personal protective equipment for thoracic anesthetists only in 47% of cases. Double-lumen tube and bronchial blocker were preferred by 53% and 22% of responders to achieve one-lung ventilation respectively. Over 90% of responders considered the videolaryngoscope with separate screen and rapid sequence induction/intubation useful to minimize the infection risk. Thirty-nine percent of participants considered mandatory the bronchoscopic check of airway devices. Vivasight-DL was considered comfortable by more than 50% of responders while protective box and plastic drape were judged as uncomfortable by most of anesthetists. Conclusions The survey reveals many changes in the clinical practice due to SARS-CoV-2 outbreak. A certain diffusion of new devices such as the VivaSight-DL and barrier enclosure systems emerged too. Finally, we found that most of Italian hospitals did not recognize thoracic anesthesia as a high-risk specialty for risk of virus diffusion. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s44158-021-00029-0.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, Aerosol generating procedures, airway management, Lung separation, Bronchial blockers, 【초록키워드】 SARS-CoV-2, Personal protective equipment, SARS-COV-2 infection, COVID-19 pandemic, hospital, Ventilation, risk, virus, airway, outbreak, management, infection risk, Responder, group, questionnaire, Clinical practice, Protective, Thoracic, high risk, supplementary material, complex, Variability, sequence, participant, National, diffusion, over, Complete, Italian, invasive, Result, changes in, recognize, submitted, reveal, bronchial blocker, mandatory, thoracic anesthesia, 【제목키워드】 Ventilation, lung, management, Italian, anesthesiologist,