Delaying surgery for patients with a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection
COVIDSurg Collaborative, James C Glasbey, Dmitri Nepogodiev, Omar Omar, Joana F F Simoes, Adesoji Ademuyiwa, Marco Fiore, Ana Minaya-Bravo, Richard Shaw, Raghavan Vidya, Aneel Bhangu, James Glasbey, Omar Omar, Aneel Bhangu, Kwabena Siaw-Acheampong, Ruth Benson, Edward Bywater, Daoud Chaudhry, Brett E Dawson, Jonathan P Evans, James Glasbey, Rohan R Gujjuri, Emily Heritage, Conor Jones, Sivesh K. Kamarajah, Chetan Khatri, Rachel A Khaw, James M Keatley, Andrew T. Knight, Samuel Lawday, Elizabeth Li, Harvinder Mann, Ella J Marson, Kenneth A McLean, Siobhan McKay, Emily Mills, Dmitri Nepogodiev, Gianluca Pellino, Maria Picciochi, Elliot H Taylor, Abhinav Tiwari, Joana F F Simoes, Isobel M Trout, Mary L Venn, Richard Wilkin, Aneel Bhangu, James C Glasbey, Ana Minaya‐Bravo, Jonathan P Evans, Susan Moug, Dale Vimalchandran, Abigail Vallance, Peter Pockney, Ewen A Griffiths, Sivesh K. Kamarajah, Philip Townend, Keith Roberts, Siobhan McKay, John Isaac, Sohei Satoi, John Edwards, Aman S. Coonar, Adrian Marchbank, Edward Caruana, Georgia R. Layton, Akshay J. Patel, Alessandro Brunelli, Samuel Ford, Anant Desai, Alessandro Gronchi, Marco Fiore, Max Almond, Fabio Tirotta, Sinziana Dumitra, Angelos G. Kolias, Stephen J. Price, Daniel M. Fountain, Michael D. Jenkinson, Peter J. Hutchinson, Hani J. Marcus, Rory J. Piper, Laura Lippa, Franco Servadei, Ignatius Esene, Christian F. Freyschlag, Iuri Santana Neville, Gail Rosseau, Karl Schaller, Andreas K. Demetriades, Faith C. Robertson, Alex Alamri, Richard Shaw, Andrew Schache, Stuart C. Winter, Michael Ho, Paul Nankivell, Juan Rey Biel, Martin Batstone, Ian Ganly, Raghavan Vidya
Abstract
With at least 28 elective million operations delayed during the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of patients who will require surgery after a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection is likely to increase rapidly1. Operating on patients with an active perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection is now known to carry a very high pulmonary complication and mortality rate2. Urgent information is needed to guide whether postponing surgery in patients with a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection leads to a clinical benefit, and the optimal length of delay.