Emergency surgery amid ongoing pandemic in suspected COVID-19 with D1 perforation

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected working patterns of all emergency and regular surgical services. We report a case of emergency surgery amid this ongoing pandemic, in a suspected COVID-19 patient with D1 (duodenal) perforation. We did not wait for the real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) report for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) to come, and proceeded with surgery with all safety protocols. We intend not to delay, for the better outcome of patient’s condition, the life-saving response alike we follow routinely. The pandemic scenario is expected to sustain for longer time. We assume, patients requiring acute care surgery with COVID-19 like symptoms (suspected or confirmed), should definitely be proceeded with surgery as earliest, following all safety protocols, and prevent undue and added morbidity and mortality during this pandemic crisis.

Acute surgical abdomen due to duodenal perforation in an elderly COVID-19 patient

“…Radiological diagnostic methods such as X-rays and CT play a major role in diagnosing COVID-19 patients or at least raising the suspicion of the disease. Therefore, all cases of suspicious COVID-19 patients, who need emergency surgical intervention, it is necessary to be treated as COVID-19 patients, using safety protocol measures, until the arrival of negative RT-PCR result [2,3].…”