Emergency surgery in COVID-19 outbreak: Has anything changed? Single center experience
Francesco D’Urbano, Nicolò Fabbri, Margherita Koleva Radica, Eleonora Rossin, Paolo Carcoforo
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The current coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic is changing the organization of health care and has had a direct impact on the management of surgical patients.At the General Surgery Department of Sant'Anna University Hospital in Ferrara, Italy, surgical activities were progressively reduced during the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy. During this period, only one operating room was available for elective cancer surgeries and another for emergency surgeries. Moreover, the number of beds for surgical patients had to be reduced to provide beds and personnel for the new COVID-19 wards. AIM: To compare 2 different period (from March 9 to April 9 2019 and from March 9 to April 9 2020), searching differences in terms of number and type of interventions in emergency surgery of a main University Hospital in Ferrara, a city in Emilia Romagna region, North of Italy. METHODS: = 27). Analyses were adjusted for age, gender, American Society of Anesthesiologists classification scores and types of surgery. RESULTS: 17 out of 46 cases from March 9 to April 9, 2019 (36.9). Of the 27 patients who underwent emergency surgery during the pandemic, 10 were screened for COVID-19 using both thorax high resolution computerized tomography and a naso-pharyngeal swab, while 9 only underwent thorax high resolution computerized tomography. Only 1 patient tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and died following surgery. CONCLUSION: There was a significant reduction in emergency surgeries at our center during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is plausible that there were analogous reductions at other centers across Italy.