Complications and Outcomes of Surgical Patients Operated During COVID 19: a Single Centre Study

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has been widespread and devastating and has created unprecedented challenges for the whole medical fraternity. Mainly emergency surgeries were carried out during the pandemic, and data on postoperative outcomes of COVID-19 patients is limited [1,2]. Hence, this study was planned to find out post-operative outcome of RTPCR-positive COVID-19 patients who underwent emergency surgeries in a tertiary care institute. Retrospective data of those patients which included various parameters such as age, sex, COVID-19-related symptoms, comorbidities, surgical procedure done, length of hospital stay, postoperative complications, ICU admissions, and final outcome was collected and analysed.Twenty-three RT-PCR-positive patients who underwent emergency surgery during first and second wave of COVID-19 (1 March 2020 to 30 June 2021) were included in the study. A total of 6 and 17 were operated during 1st and 2nd wave of COVID-19, respectively. M:F ratio was 4:1 and mean age of the patients was 47 years. Before surgery, 18 were symptomatic for COVID-19, and 5 were asymptomatic. Fever was the main clinical symptom in 15 patients (65.2%), cough in 10 patients (43.4%), and dyspnoea in 3 patients (13%). Two patients were diabetic, 7 patients were hypertensive, and 2 patients had taken ATT in the past for pulmonary Koch's, whereas no comorbidities were recorded in 12 patients (52.1%). Fourteen patients underwent surgery for perforation peritonitis, 6 for acute appendicitis, 2 for blunt trauma abdomen, and 1 for absolute dysphagia. Seventeen patients were operated under general anaesthesia and 6 under spinal anaesthesia. Fourteen (60.8%) patients had postoperative complications among which 11 developed pulmonary complications, 2 had burst abdomen, and * Surender Verma

Postoperative Outcomes After Emergency Surgery in COVID-19 Patients: An Ambispective Matched Cohort Study

“…Most global studies on surgical patients showed worse perioperative outcomes in patients with a positive severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) test [1][2][3][4][5][6]. The few Indian studies that are available also report high morbidity and mortality in COVID-19 patients after surgery but are retrospective in nature [7,8]. Understanding the impact of COVID-19 infection on postoperative morbidity and mortality in surgical patients is vital for evidence-based preoperative risk stratification, shared decision-making, balancing risks with benefits, monitoring trends in postoperative outcomes, and planning surgical services for future pandemics.…”