Impact of COVID-19 geographic distribution on advanced age plastic surgeons: A cross-sectional analysis

Abstract

Single versus simultaneous double free flaps for head and neck reconstruction: comparison of flap outcomes and donor-site morbidity. Microsurgery 2019; 82 (2):184-9 . 5. Powcharoen W, Yang W, Li KY, Zhu W, Su Y. Computer-assisted versus conventional freehand mandibular reconstruction with fibula free flap: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

The Geographical Impact of Plastic Surgery Residency to Fellowship and Residency/Fellowship to First Job Placement

“…This is supported by the findings in this study since a majority of the residencies, fellowships, and first jobs were located in the Northeast, Southeast, and West coast regions, and fewer trainees and training institutions were located in Midwest and Mountain west regions. When expanding the scope from more recent plastic surgeons to consider plastic surgeons over the age of 60 years, a similar distribution of access is seen with a vast majority of surgeons working in states like California, New York, and Florida and less than 30 surgeons in Montana, New Mexico, and Idaho 24 . This apparent inequity in plastic surgery access in certain areas may directly stem from the current distribution of integrated plastic surgery residencies and fellowships in the United States.…”

“…When expanding the scope from more recent plastic surgeons to consider plastic surgeons over the age of 60 years, a similar distribution of access is seen with a vast majority of surgeons working in states like California, New York, and Florida and less than 30 surgeons in Montana, New Mexico, and Idaho. 24 This apparent inequity in plastic surgery access in certain areas may directly stem from the current distribution of integrated plastic surgery residencies and fellowships in the United States. Expanding plastic surgery residencies and fellowships into more rural and smaller metro areas may be beneficial in improving equity in terms of access to plastic surgery health care since these training institutions' locations are closely related to the location of the plastic surgeon's first job and thus future practice.…”

Targeted coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) surveillance for elective procedures: Lessons for resource conservation during a pandemic and beyond

“…Aerosol-generating procedures involving the oral, nasal, esophageal, or thoracic mucosa present elevated risk of SARS-CoV-2 exposure to healthcare workers. 7 Therefore, operative teams donned full PPE with N95 respirator regardless of SARS-CoV-2 test result. We also acknowledged that negative test results did not necessarily exclude SARS-CoV-2 infection, given the imperfect sensitivity of RT-PCR testing.…”

“…For patients whose procedures involved oral, nasal, esophageal, or thoracic mucosal disruption, we hypothesized that concurrent asymptomatic infection with SARS-CoV-2 could worsen surgical outcome and heighten risk of transmission to the procedural team. 7 If the preprocedural test was negative, COVID-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) was recommended due to test sensitivity limitations, limited treatment options for acute COVID-19 should transmission to healthcare workers occur, and absence of primary infection prevention in the pandemic’s early months. Elevated risk populations included cancer patients undergoing postneoadjuvant chemotherapy, patients with gastrointestinal malignancies, and patients at high risk of sustained postoperative intubation.…”

Workforce geography of older dermatologists during the COVID ‐19 pandemic

“…1 Regarding dermatologic care, skin exams limit dermatologists' ability to maintain physical distance from patients, and head/neck procedures often require that patients remove masks, thus placing dermatologists at increased risk of COVID-19 infection. Given the association between older age and COVID-19 severity, [3][4][5][6] our objective was to compare the geographic distribution of dermatologists ≥60 years of age to the cumulative distribution of COVID-19 cases to inform safety guidelines and workforce planning.…”