BACKGROUND:The "hospital-at-home" model may provide adequate care without an adverse effect on clinical outcome, and is generally well received by users. Our objective was to compare hospital-at-home and in-patient hospital care for neuromuscular disease (NMD) patients with respiratory tract infections. METHODS: We conducted a prospective randomized controlled trial in a university teaching hospital offering secondary care service to a population of approximately 500,000. We recruited selected NMD patients with respiratory tract infection for whom hospital admission had been recommended after medical assessment. Hospital-at-home was provided as an alternative to in-patient admission. The main outcome measures were need for hospitalization, treatment failure, time to recovery, death during the first 3 months following exacerbation, and cost of patient care. RESULTS: Among 59 consecutive NMD patients eligible for the study, 53 met the criteria for hospital-at-home. Twenty-six subjects were randomized to home care and 27 to hospital care. No significant differences were found in treatment failure (8/26 vs 13/27, P ‫؍‬ .19), time to recovery (8.9 ؎ 4.6 vs 9 ؎ 8.9 d, P ‫؍‬ .21), or mortality at 3 months (3/26 vs 4/27 deaths, P ‫؍‬ .42) between the groups. Hospital-at-home failure was independently correlated with type of NMD (P ‫؍‬ .004) with an odds ratio of failure of 17.3 (95% CI 2.1 to infinity) for subjects with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The total and daily direct cost of patient healthcare was significantly lower for the subjects who were successfully treated at home, compared to the hospitalized individuals. CONCLUSIONS: Hospital-at-home is an effective alternative to hospital admission for selected NMD patients with respiratory tract infections.

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Transdermal estrogen replacement therapy combined with 100 mg of micronized NP administered per vagina from the 14th day to the 25th day of each 28-day cycle leads to good cycle control and provides excellent patient satisfaction without serious side-effects. This therapy could be a treatment of first choice in early postmenopausal patients.

Pneumothorax (PNX) and pneumomediastinum (PNM) are potential complications of COVID-19, but their influence on patients’ outcomes remains unclear. The aim of the study was to assess incidence, risk factors, and outcomes of severe COVID-19 complicated with PNX/PNM. Methods: A retrospective multicenter case-control analysis was conducted in COVID-19 patients admitted for respiratory failure in intermediate care units of the Treviso area, Italy, from March 2020 to April 2021. Clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with and without PNX/PNM were compared. Results: Among 1213 patients, PNX and/or PNM incidence was 4.5%. Among these, 42% had PNX and PNM, 33.5% only PNX, and 24.5% only PNM. COVID-19 patients with PNX/PNM showed higher in-hospital (p = 0.02) and 90-days mortality (p = 0.048), and longer hospitalization length (p = 0.002) than COVID-19 patients without PNX/PNM. At PNX/PNM occurrence, one-third of subjects was not mechanically ventilated, and the respiratory support was similar to the control group. PNX/PNM occurrence was associated with longer symptom length before hospital admission (p = 0.005) and lower levels of blood lymphocytes (p = 0.017). Conclusion: PNX/PNM are complications of COVID-19 associated with a worse prognosis in terms of mortality and length of hospitalization. Although they are more frequent in ventilated patients, they can occur in non-ventilated, suggesting that mechanisms other than barotrauma might contribute to their presentation.

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