THORACIC SURGERY IN A COVID-19 FRONTLINE HOSPITAL. ARE THE PATIENTS SAFE?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48729/pjctvs.166Keywords:
COVID-19 Pandemic, Thoracic Surgery, Patient non-COVID-19 Safety, Priority SurgeryAbstract
Introduction and Objectives: COVID-19 pandemic forced a change in health care resources and provision due to the emergence of a new group of patients, requiring extraordinary protective measures and the adoption of new organization for the treatment of urgent or priority COVID-19 negative patients. We reviewed our practice during the first pandemic period to evaluate our surgical outcomes and identify if patients COVID-19 negative submitted to thoracic surgery had an increased risk of being infected or die.
Methods: We retrospectively reviewed our surgical results between 11th March and 15th May 2020. Thirty patients underwent thoracic surgery at the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery of Centro Hospitalar Universitário de São João.
Results: None of the patients was COVID-19 positive and cross-transmission of the disease was not recognized. The majority of patients were admitted from home, with a high priority indication, namely an oncological disease. There was only one case of in-hospital mortality.
Conclusion: During the first wave of the pandemic it was safe to be admitted and submitted to thoracic surgery at CHUSJ. Our patients, including oncological patients, received the adequate surgical treatment without an increase of risk of death or infection.
Downloads
References
Nogueira PJ, Nobre MA, Nicola PJ, Furtado C, Carneiro AV.Early estimates of excess mortality during COVID-19 pandemic: preliminary data from Portugal. Acta Med Port 2020. Jun; 33(6):376-383
Solomon MD, McNulty EJ, Rana SJ, Leong TK, Lee C,Sung S, Ambrosy AP, Sidney Stephen. The Covid-19 and the incidence of Acute Myocardial Infarction. NEJM, Letter to the Editor, May 19, 2020. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc2015630
Hospital Volumes Slashed by More Than Half During Pandemic - Medscape - May 11, 2020, citing the “National Patient and Volume Tracker” by Strata Decision Technology.
Casanova J, Pissarra D, Costa R, Salgueiro E, Pinho P.. Cardiothoracic surgery during the Covid‐19 pandemic: Perioperative care, safety, and surgical results. J Card Surg. 2020;1–6.https://doi.org/10.1111/jocs.14857
Nachira D, Meacci E, Margaritora S, Ismail M. Level of evidence on long-term results after VATS lobectomy: state of the art. J Thorac Dis 2019;11(6):2192-2194. doi: 10.21037/jtd.2019.06.19
