There is no known effective oral therapy for early COVID-19. This randomized trial evaluated effects of oral hydroxychloroquine on symptoms and disease severity in adult outpatients with early COVI... Visual Hydroxychloroquine in Nonhospitalized Adults With Early COVID-19 There is no known effective oral therapy for early COVID-19. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial... Background: No effective oral therapy exists for early coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Objective: To investigate whether hydroxychloroquine could reduce COVID-19 severity in adult outpatients....

In 2009 we reported the fatal case of a toddler who had received codeine after adenotonsillectomy for obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. The child was an ultra-rapid metabolizer of cytochrome P4502D6 (CYP2D6). We now report 3 additional fatal or life-threatening cases from North America. In the 2 fatal cases, functional gene duplications encoding for CYP2D6 caused a significantly greater production of potent morphine from its parent drug, codeine. A severe case of respiratory depression in an extensive metabolizer is also noted. These cases demonstrate that analgesia with codeine or other opioids that use the CYP2D6 pathway after adenotonsillectomy may not be safe in young children with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Pediatric sleep disordered breathing is often caused by hypertrophy of the tonsils and is commonly managed by tonsillectomy. There is controversy regarding which postsurgical analgesic agents are safe and efficacious. METHODS: This prospective randomized clinical trial recruited children who had sleep disordered breathing who were scheduled for tonsillectomy +/− adenoid removal. Parents were provided with a pulse oximeter to measure oxygen saturation and apnea events the night before and the night after surgery. Children were randomized to receive acetaminophen with either 0.2–0.5 mg/kg oral morphine or 10 mg/kg of oral ibuprofen. The Objective Pain Scale and Faces Scale were used to assess effectiveness on postoperative day 1 and day 5. The primary endpoint was changes in respiratory parameters during sleep. RESULTS: A total of 91 children aged 1 to 10 years were randomized. On the first postoperative night, with respect to oxygen desaturations, 86% of children did not show improvement in the morphine group, whereas 68% of ibuprofen patients did show improvement (14% vs 68%; P < .01). The number of desaturation events increased substantially in the morphine group, with an average increase of 11.17 ± 15.02 desaturation events per hour (P < .01). There were no differences seen in analgesic effectiveness, tonsillar bleeding, or adverse drug reactions. CONCLUSIONS: Ibuprofen in combination with acetaminophen provides safe and effective analgesia in children undergoing tonsillectomy. Post-tonsillectomy morphine use should be limited, as it may be unsafe in certain children.