BJS commission on surgery and perioperative care post-COVID-19
BJS Commission Team, Egide Abahuje, Aya Abbas, Mohamed A. Maksoud, A Abdelhady, S. Abdelhamid, H Faraj, Bushra Abdelqader, Hossam Abdou, Alend Abdullah, Merrie Harrison, E Abem Owusu, Abeer Aboalazayem, Rabii Aboulhosn, Shinya Oda, Aisha Abubakar, Ahmad Abutaka, D Acevedo Fontalvo, Sergio A. Acuña, A Adefemi, S Adegbola, T. Adenuga, Ademola Adeyeye, Ahmed Hilmi, K. Aditya, Theophilus Adjeso, R Aftab, Asma Afzal, Vyom Aggarwal, Ajay Aggarwal, Roser Ferrer i Aguilera, M -L Aguilera-Arévalo, Eisner Salamanca, Ignacio Aguirre‐Allende, D Ahari, Hamaad Ahmad, Faateh Ahmad Rauf, AmirMaroof Khan, Samrein B. M. Ahmed, N Ahmed Fieturi, Sugad Mohamed, Z Ahmed-Bakhsh, Muhammad A. Javed, Lordstrong Akano, Ali Akbar, Melika Akhbari, Parvin Akhmedov, G Aksit, Yougandhar Akula, Shifa Majid, O Al Mukhtar, Heymut Omran, N Al-Asali, Marwa Al‐Azzawi, R Al-Habsi, H Al-Iraqi, Hamza Al-Naggar, Ehab Alameer, Hatim Albirnawi, Fozan Aldulaijan, R Alejandro Miranda Ojeda, Ameera Alhasan, Stephen R Ali, Aisha Mansoor Ali, Khan Ma, Ya. O. Alimova, Firas Aljanadi, R Aljubure, N Allopi, Haifa Almedbal, M. Almubarak, Zainab Alqaidoom, Nahar Alselaim, Muhammad Alshaar, Reem Alshammari, Kiran Altaf, Saygın Altıner, Burak Altunpak, Luis Adrián Álvarez-Lozada, Emma Amal Nahal, A. Amer, Kawa Amin, Usman Mohammed Aminu, N Amisi Numbi, T Amjad, R Amoah, Yongbo An, N -A Anastasopoulos, J Andrés Urrutia, F Angarita, K -L Angarita, M Ángel FreirÍa Eiras, A Antypas, Muzaffar A. Anwar, H Anwar, T O Apampa, Κωνσταντίνος Αποστόλου, Christopher T. Aquina, R Arachchige Adithi Himika Randeni, M I Archila Godínez
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic by the WHO on 11 March 2020 and global surgical practice was compromised. This Commission aimed to document and reflect on the changes seen in the surgical environment during the pandemic, by reviewing colleagues' experiences and published evidence. METHODS: In late 2020, BJS contacted colleagues across the global surgical community and asked them to describe how severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) had affected their practice. In addition to this, the Commission undertook a literature review on the impact of COVID-19 on surgery and perioperative care. A thematic analysis was performed to identify the issues most frequently encountered by the correspondents, as well as the solutions and ideas suggested to address them. RESULTS: BJS received communications for this Commission from leading clinicians and academics across a variety of surgical specialties in every inhabited continent. The responses from all over the world provided insights into multiple facets of surgical practice from a governmental level to individual clinical practice and training. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic has uncovered a variety of problems in healthcare systems, including negative impacts on surgical practice. Global surgical multidisciplinary teams are working collaboratively to address research questions about the future of surgery in the post-COVID-19 era. The COVID-19 pandemic is severely damaging surgical training. The establishment of a multidisciplinary ethics committee should be encouraged at all surgical oncology centres. Innovative leadership and collaboration is vital in the post-COVID-19 era.