Highlights-Thoracic anesthesiologists might be involved in the perioperative care of patients suspected to have or diagnosed COVID-19 who might undergo thoracic surgery during the acute or convalescence phases of the disease.-Caution should be exercised when securing the airway and performing lung separation (if required), through vigilant donning/doffing of personal protection equipment (PPE), planning ahead, team briefing, proper preparations, systematic approach, and debriefing.-Lung separation / isolation should be individualized using either bronchial blockers or double lumen tubes according to the patient"s status and postoperative care plan.-Optimum PPE donning should be maintained during surgery and anesthesia. One lung ventilation could be challenging in this group of patients.-The anesthesiologists should discuss the feasibility of extubating the patient following thoracic surgery, and procedures for postoperative care andtransferring the patient to the isolation wards or intensive care unit.Abstract 110 words, Manuscript 4935 words Running

Nonresponse to recombinant hepatitis B surface antigen may be a sign of undiagnosed celiac disease. However, there is a good vaccine response in adequately treated patients. Human leukocyte antigen DQ alleles do not seem to have a primary role. Revaccination is recommended during a controlled gluten-free diet.

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This study compares oxygenation during thoracic surgery during periods of two-lung and one-lung ventilation with patients in the supine and lateral positions when using three different fraction of inspired oxygen values. Arterial oxygen tension was decreased in all three groups during one-lung ventilation in comparison with the two-lung ventilation values, but the decrease was significantly less in the lateral, compared with the supine position.

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Background Postoperative pulmonary complications (PPC) may result in longer duration of in-hospital stay and even mortality. Both thoracic surgery and intraoperative mechanical ventilation settings add considerably to the risk of PPC. It is unclear if one-lung ventilation (OLV) for thoracic surgery with a strategy of intraoperative high positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) and recruitment maneuvers (RM) reduces PPC, compared to low PEEP without RM. Methods PROTHOR is an international, multicenter, randomized, controlled, assessor-blinded, two-arm trial initiated by investigators of the PROtective VEntilation NETwork. In total, 2378 patients will be randomly assigned to one of two different intraoperative mechanical ventilation strategies. Investigators screen patients aged 18 years or older, scheduled for open thoracic or video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery under general anesthesia requiring OLV, with a maximal body mass index of 35 kg/m 2 , and a planned duration of surgery of more than 60 min. Further, the expected duration of OLV shall be longer than two-lung ventilation, and lung separation is planned with a double lumen tube. Patients will be randomly assigned to PEEP of 10 cmH 2 O with lung RM, or PEEP of 5 cmH 2 O without RM. During two-lung ventilation tidal volume is set at 7 mL/kg predicted body weight and, during OLV, it will be decreased to 5 mL/kg. The occurrence of PPC will be recorded as a collapsed composite of single adverse pulmonary events and represents the primary endpoint. Discussion PROTHOR is the first randomized controlled trial in patients undergoing thoracic surgery with OLV that is adequately powered to compare the effects of intraoperative high PEEP with RM versus low PEEP without RM on PPC. The results of the PROTHOR trial will support anesthesiologists in their decision to set intraoperative PEEP during protective ventilation for OLV in thoracic surgery. Trial registration The trial was registered in clinicaltrials.gov ( NCT02963025 ) on 15 November 2016. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13063-019-3208-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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The role of gravity in the redistribution of pulmonary blood flow during one-lung ventilation (OLV) has recently been questioned. To address this controversial but clinically important issue we used an experimental approach that allowed us to differentiate the effects of gravity from the effects of hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction on arterial oxygenation during OLV in patients scheduled for thoracic surgery. MethodsForty patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease scheduled for right lung tumour resection, were randomized to undergo dependent (left) one-lung ventilation (D-OLV ; n=20) or non-dependent (right) one-lung ventilation (ND-OLV ; n=20) in the supine and left lateral positions. Partial pressure of arterial oxygen (PaO 2 ) was measured as a surrogate for ventilation/perfusion matching. Patients were studied before surgery in closed chest conditions.