LAUSR

The Covid-19 pandemic has swept the world in fewer than 3 months, and there remains no end in sight. Approximately 6.1% of Covid-19 cases were classified as critical—defined as respiratory failure, shock, and multiple organ dysfunction or failure (1). Among the critically ill Covid-19 patients, ∼6–47% of them were intubated in China (2–7), 71–75% were intubated in the United States (8, 9), and 88% were intubated in Italy (10). The sheer volume of patients who require invasive mechanical ventilation support entails that anesthesia professionals have been put under significant pressure during this pandemic. This pressure is exacerbated by the fact that many urgent and emergent surgeries must proceed, even in situations in which patients have confirmed or suspected Covid-19. Clearly, anesthesia providers are playing a fundamental role in the frontline efforts to fight against this formidable pandemic. This paper discusses the impact Covid-19 is having on contemporary anesthesia practice through different phases and highlights some of the lessons we can learn to inform future practice (Figure 1).