Olivia Keiser, Thomas Agoritsas, Christian L. Althaus, Andrew S. Azman, Dominique de Quervain, Antoine Flahault, Myrofora Goutaki, Arnaud Merglen, Isabella Eckerle

A public health strategy for SARS-CoV-2, grounded in science, should guide Swiss schools through the coming winter

Swiss Med Wkly. 2021;151:w30086

By implementing the known effective measures, both vulnerable children, adults and the whole healthcare system will be safer. Protecting children is not only a moral imperative, but will also help us to control the epidemic situation and ensure continuous education during the coming winter.

Adalgisa Condoluci, Marie Théaudin, Rahel Schwotzer, Aju P. Pazhenkottil, Paolo Arosio, Manuela Averaimo, Ulrike Bacher, Peter Bode, Andrea Cavalli, Stefan Dirnhofer, Nadia Djerbi, Stephan Dobner, Thomas Fehr, Maura Garofalo, Ariana Gaspert, Sabine Gerull, Raphael Heimgartner, Annemarie Hübers, Hans H. Jung, Chiara Kessler, Raphael Knöpfel, Natallia Laptseva, Giulia Magini, Robert Manka, Luca Mazzucchelli, Martin Meyer, Violeta Mihaylova, Pierre Monney, Alessio Mylonas, René Nkoulou, Thomas Pabst, Otmar Pfister, Axel Rüfer, Adrian Schmidt, Harald Seeger, Simon F. Stämpfli, Guido Stirnimann, Thomas Suter, Giorgio Treglia, Alexandar Tzankov, Friederike Vetter, Markus Zweier, Andreas J. Flammer, Bernhard Gerber

Management of transthyretin amyloidosis

Swiss Med Wkly. 2021;151:w30053

Transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTR amyloidosis) is a disease caused by deposition of transthyretin fibrils in organs and tissues, which causes their dysfunction. The clinical heterogeneity of ATTR amyloidosis and the variable presentation of symptoms at early disease stages, historically meant treatment delays. Diagnostic tools and therapy options of ATTR amyloidosis have markedly improved in recent years.

Philip Haaf, Gabriela M. Kuster, Christian Mueller, Christoph T. Berger, Pierre Monney, Peter Burger, Simon F. Stämpfli, Christine Helena Attenhofer Jost, Michael J. Zellweger, Stefan Osswald, Birgit C. Donner, Simon C. Koestner, Felix C. Tanner

The very low risk of myocarditis and pericarditis after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination should not discourage vaccination

Swiss Med Wkly. 2021;151:w30087

The benefits of vaccination clearly outweigh the potential risk of vaccine-associated inflammation of the heart and other adverse events. Given the current state of knowledge, the outcome of myocarditis and pericarditis following vaccination is generally good. This review aims to guide physicians in the early diagnosis and management of suspected myocarditis following mRNA COVID vaccination.

Katrina S. Evers, Sven Wellmann, Birgit C. Donner, Nicole Ritz

Apparent life-threatening events and brief resolved unexplained events: management of children at a Swiss tertiary care center

Swiss Med Wkly. 2021;151:w30026

Apparent life threatening events (ALTEs) are highly stressful situations for the caregiver and commonly result in presentation of the child to an emergency department. As the events are usually brief and resolve in a short period of time, the entity is now called a brief resolved unexplained event (BRUE). The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiology of ALTE and BRUE and detail clinical practice of management in this population in a tertiary care children’s hospital in Switzerland.

Aurélien Emmanuel Martinez, Florian Banderet, Niklaus D. Labhardt, Manuel Battegay

Long-term outcome after SARS-CoV-2 infection in healthcare workers: a single centre cohort study

Swiss Med Wkly. 2021;151:w30094

A relevant proportion of healthcare workers with mild COVID-19 report persisting symptoms over 3 and 12 months. Although in the majority of cases symptoms are mild, this study highlights the need for further research into causes and therapy.

Christoph Becker, Katharina Beck, Samuel Zumbrunn, Valentina Memma, Naemi Herzog, Benjamin Bissmann, Sebastian Gross, Nina Loretz, Jonas Mueller, Simon A. Amacher, Chantal Bohren, Rainer Schaefert, Stefano Bassetti, Christoph Fux, Beat Mueller, Philipp Schuetz, Sabina Hunziker

Long COVID 1 year after hospitalisation for COVID-19: a prospective bicentric cohort study

70% of the patients included in the study had symptoms of long COVID 1 year after hospitalisation. Three predictors, namely duration of hospitalisation, severity of illness, and self-perceived overall health status 30 days after hospitalisation were associated with long COVID.

Claudine Schaller, Andrea Fümm, Simon Bachmann, Luca Oechslin, Yoshi Nakahara, Roger Melliger, Patric Biaggi, Christophe Alain Wyss

Heart rate profiles and heart rate variability during scuba diving

Swiss Med Wkly. 2021;151:w30039

Scuba diving under real-world conditions by non-selected divers is characterised by relatively high heart rates just before submersion, an individually variable but significant bradycardic dive response, and induces an immediate and sustained parallel increase of parasympathetic and sympathetic-adrenergic autonomic nervous system activity.

Sabine Richarz, Soheila Aghlmandi, Andrei Zdoroveac, Alexandra Müller, Andrej Isaak, Lorenz Gürke, Thomas Wolff

Open aneurysm repair in patients with concomitant abdominal aortic aneurysm and aorto-iliac occlusive disease is associated with a high mortality and surgical complication rate

Swiss Med Wkly. 2021;151:w30050

Combined abdominal aortic aneurysm repair and aorto-femoral bypass has a significantly higher 30-day mortality and postoperative complication rate than isolated abdominal aortic aneurysm repair. Patients with concomitant abdominal aortic aneurysm and aorto-iliac occlusive disease thus represent a high-risk population, which should be considered when deciding on the indication for abdominal aortic aneurysm treatment.

Sarina Bucher, Aline S. Neumann, Christian M. Meerwein, David Holzmann, Michael B. Soyka

Reduction of otorhinolaryngological consultations due to the COVID-19 lockdown and its impact on disease progression

Swiss Med Wkly. 2021;151:w30068

Almost 50% of patients with chronic rhinosinusitis showed disease progression, leading to prolonged suffering due to the rescheduling of appointments. The treatment of patients with the diagnosis of a malignant tumour was not affected by the postponement of consultations.

Nicolò Saverio Centemero, Bernd Rechel

Barriers and facilitators to a health information exchange system between general practitioners and hospitals: a qualitative study in Southern Switzerland

Swiss Med Wkly. 2021;151:w30063

Health information exchange (HIE) systems are computer tools that healthcare providers use to share patients’ medical information electronically. This study is the first that addresses barriers and facilitators for HIE systems in the Canton of Ticino, Switzerland.