Cancer Surgery during covid increased the patient mortality and the transmission risk to health care workers: results from a retrospective cohort study (NCT05240378)

Abstract

Background India encountered two waves of Covid 19 pandemic with variability in its characteristics and severity. Concerns were raised over the safety of treatment and higher morbidity was predicted for oncological surgery. The present study was conducted to evaluate and compare the rate of morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing curative surgery for cancer before and during the Covid 19 pandemic. Method The prospectively obtained clinical data of 1576 patients treated between April 2019 to May 2021 was reviewed, of these 959 patients were operated before Covid 19 and 617 during the pandemic. The data on complications, deaths, confirmed or suspected Covid 19 cases and Covid 19 infection among health workers (HCW) was extracted. Results A 35% fall in number of surgeries was seen during the Covid period, significant fall was seen in genital and esophageal cancer. There was no difference in postoperative complication; however, the postoperative mortality was significantly higher. A total of 71 patients had Covid 19, of which 62 were preoperative and 9 postoperative, while 30/38 health care workers contracted Covid 19, of which 7 had the infection twice and 3 were infected after two doses of vaccination, there was no mortality in health care workers. Conclusion The present study demonstrate higher mortality rates after surgery in cancer patients, with no significant change in morbidity rates. A substantial proportion of HCWs were also infected though there was no mortality among this group, suggesting high mortality despite following the guidelines and protocols.