Abstract
Background It is not known whether emergency surgeries and interventions are safe during the pandemic period. We investigate the effect of surgery and intervention on COVID-19 disease progression, intensive care (ICU) need, mortality, and virus transmission to patients and healthcare workers.Methods This retrospective study was conducted between 20 March -20 May 2020 in six hospitals in Istanbul. Patients were examined in three groups. Group I patients who underwent emergency surgery, Group II patients who underwent emergency nonoperating room intervention, Group III patients who underwent inpatient COVID-19 treatment but did not have any surgery or intervention. During this period, all healthcare workers and patients diagnosed with COVID-19 with any of the symptoms, PCR positivity, or Thorax CT findings were recorded. Patient and healthcare worker transmission, unplanned intensive care need, and death due to COVID-19 were also recorded.Results 1,273 surgical, 476 nonoperating room intervention patients, and 1,884 COVID-19 inpatients were examined. ICU requirement of COVID-19 patients who had surgery was 20 times higher than COVID-19 inpatients and intervention patients but there is no difference in mortality. The total mortality rates were 2.3% in surgical patients, 3.3% in intervention patients diagnosed with COVID-19, and 3% in COVID-19 inpatients. COVID-19 PCR positivity among hospital workers was % 2.4. Only 3.3% of the infected frontline healthcare workers were anesthesiologists. No deaths occurred among infected healthcare workers.Conclusions Emergency surgeries and interventions during the pandemic period did not increase mortality and can be performed safely with very low transmission rates by complying with the effective use of personal protective equipment.
Incidence of COVID-19 Virus Transmission in Three Dental Offices: A 6-Month Retrospective Study