Surgical and cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic (search done on 4 April 2020)
Citation: Spolverato G, Capelli G, Restivo A, et al. The management of surgical patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Surgery. 2020;168(1):4-10.
What is this? There is an ongoing need for patients to have surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In this rapid systematic review, the authors searched for studies on the management of cancer and surgical patients during the COVID-19 pandemic (as well as some other issues that are covered in other Evidence Aid summaries). They did not restrict their searches by type or language of publication and did the search on 4 April 2020. They included 28 studies.
What was found: At the time of the review, the included studies showed that cancer patients and surgical patients were at a higher risk of COVID-19 infection and negative health outcomes.
At the time of the review, recommendations to reduce infection and mortality from COVID-19 in cancer patients include postponing non-essential treatments, use of adequate PPE, case-by-case evaluation for surgery and use of separate facilities for cancer patients.
At the time of the review, recommendations for pre-operative management included postponing elective surgeries, routine screening of patients, use of PPE, scheduling longer shifts to minimize COVID-19 exposure, and screening of healthcare workers.
At the time of the review, the included studies support the use of telemedicine in the postoperative follow-up of patients.