Has Something Changed in the COVID-19 Outbreak in Emergency Surgery? Experience with a Single Core | Chapter 3 | Highlights on Medicine and Medical Research Vol. 8

 Background: The emerging coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic is reshaping health-care delivery and has impacted surgical patient management significantly. During the height of the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy, surgical operations at the General Surgery Department of Sant' Anna University Hospital in Ferrara, Italy, were steadily reduced. During this time, only one operating room was accessible for elective cancer surgery and another for emergency procedures. In order to make space for the new COVID-19 wards, the number of surgical patient beds had to be decreased. The aim was to compare two time periods (March 9 to April 9 2019 and March 9 to April 9 2020) at a major university hospital in Ferrara, Emilia Romagna, northern Italy, to see if there were any differences in the number and type of emergency surgery operations.

A secondary aim was to analyse the patient's outcomes.

Methods: The General Surgery Department of Sant' Anna University Hospital in Ferrara, Italy, conducted this retrospective analysis. We looked at the number of emergency surgeries performed and patient results during the height of the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy and the subsequent full lockdown. The number of surgeries performed and their outcomes were then compared for the same period in 2019. The researchers looked at all adult patients who had emergency surgery between March 9 and April 9, 2019 (n = 46) and those who had surgery within the first month of the lockdown (n = 27). The studies took into account age, gender, classification scores from the American Society of Anesthesiologists, and surgical types. Descriptive figures were used to summarise the findings.

Results: A total of 27 patients underwent emergency surgery at Sant' Anna University Hospital in Ferrara during the first month of the lockdown (March 9–April 9, 2020). In contrast to the same period in 2019, the number of patients hospitalised and undergoing emergency surgery has decreased by 41.3 percent. The complication rate was significantly higher during the pandemic period than during the comparable period in 2019: 15 out of 27 cases (55) from March 9 to April 9, 2020 vs 17 out of 46 cases from March 9 to April 9, 2019. (36.9). Ten patients were screened for COVID-19 using both thorax high resolution computerised tomography and a naso-pharyngeal swab during the pandemic, while nine were only screened using thorax high resolution computerised tomography. Just one patient was infected with SARS-CoV-2 and died after surgery.

Conclusion: Our centre saw a substantial drop in emergency surgeries during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it's possible that other centres across Italy saw similar reductions.

Author (s) Details

Nicolò Fabbri
Unit of General Surgery, Azienda Unità Sanitaria Locale di Ferrara, Ferrara 44100, Italy

View Book :- https://stm.bookpi.org/HMMR-V8/article/view/820