The COVID-19 pandemic has inevitably rendered a paradigm shift in peoples’ day-to-day normality. The pandemic has precipitated various reaction and responses from people across the globe especially with the enforcement of preventive measures initiated by their respective government forces. The movement control order (MCO) was one of the drastic measures taken in Malaysia adhering to the guideline released by World Health Organization (WHO) and has been made effective since 18th of March 2020. The execution of MCO in a developing setting like Malaysia certainly impacts its peopleon several fronts, especially those from low-socioeconomic background. It creates a domino effect from an economical to psychological aspects at both societal and individual levels. Subsequently, a conditional MCO (CMCO) has been introduced during midway through Phase 4 of MCO with eased restrictions, particularly considering economic downturn. CMCO is followed by recovery MCO (RMCO) phase. In this article, we aim to share some insights while highlighting the impacts of COVID-19 with an emphasize on the psychosocial aspect, particularly during MCO phases, which has thus imposed a newnormality on Malaysians.

Background: Extensive left colorectal resection following a high IMA ligation can lead to an anastomosis with tension and a compromised perfusion. The aim of this study is to compare the safety and feasibility of transverse colorectal anastomosis in anastomotic leak (AL) following left-sided colorectal stapled anastomosis with a descending colon/ileo – rectal anastomosis.Methods: This retrospective study was performed in a prospectively maintained database at a tertiary colorectal surgical institution in Malaysia to evaluate the impact of performing a transverse colon to rectal anastomosis in a group of patients who underwent left-sided colorectal resection followed by stapled anastomosis from 2019 until 2021. This was compared to another cohort comprising of patients who underwent descending colorectal/ileo-rectal anastomosis. Categorical and dichotomous variables were analysed using chi squared test. Results which were considered significant were if p<0.05. The statistical analysis was performed with IBM Statisticalpackage for social sciences (SPSS) statistics for Mac OS, version25.Results: In that 3 years, 170 patients were included. 77 (45.3%) underwent transverse colorectal anastomosis. The median age of these patients was 58.5. Both groups of patients who underwent transverse colorectal anastomosis and ileo/colorectal anastomosis was homogenous with no significant difference. Our anastomotic leak rate was 8.8% (n=15). 48.8% (n=83) successfully completed their resections laparoscopically. And from our analysis, transverse colorectal anastomosis does not significantly affect anastomotic leak rates (p=0.22)Conclusions: In an experienced tertiary health centre, transverse colorectal anastomosis does not impact anastomotic leak rate and has comparable outcomes to descending colon/ ileo-rectal anastomosis.