In a study of 3,127 patients with a preoperative SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis, mortality was found to be the highest in those who underwent surgery the soonest after testing positive, reported researchers in Anaesthesia. The 30-day postoperative mortality rates were 9.1% for surgery within 2 weeks of diagnosis; 6.9% for surgery 3-4 weeks after a positive test; 5.5% for surgery 5-6 weeks after testing positive; and 2.0% for surgery 7 or more weeks after diagnosis.

In comparison with the adjusted 30-day mortality of 1.5% for surgery without COVID-19 infection, patients waiting for at least 7 weeks for surgery after diagnosis were found not to have a significantly increased risk of death at 30 days.

Patients with persisting COVID-19 symptoms were shown to have increased surgical risk even after waiting 7 weeks or more in comparison with those whose symptoms resolved or who had been asymptomatic (6.0% vs 2.4% and 1.3%, respectively).

The study recruited 140,231 consecutive patients undergoing surgery during October 2020 at participating hospitals in 116 countries in the COVIDSurg Collaborative. 3,127 (2.2%) of these had a pre-operative SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis.

 [Medpage Today]

Dr KK Aggarwal

President CMAAO, HCFI and Past National President IMA