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Review
. 2020 Jul:79:168-179.
doi: 10.1016/j.ijsu.2020.05.022. Epub 2020 May 12.

Impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on surgical practice - Part 1

Ahmed Al-Jabir  1 , Ahmed Kerwan  2 , Maria Nicola  3 , Zaid Alsafi  4 , Mehdi Khan  4 , Catrin Sohrabi  5 , Niamh O'Neill  5 , Christos Iosifidis  5 , Michelle Griffin  6 , Ginimol Mathew  4 , Riaz Agha  7
Affiliations
Review

Impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on surgical practice - Part 1

Ahmed Al-Jabir et al. Int J Surg. 2020 Jul.

Abstract

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in over 4.5 million confirmed cases and over 300,000 deaths. The impact of COVID-19 on surgical practice is widespread, ranging from workforce and staffing issues, procedural prioritisation, viral transmission risk intraoperatively, changes to perioperative practice and ways of working alongside the impact on surgical education and training. Whilst there has been a growing literature base describing the early clinical course of COVID-19 and on aspects of critical care related to treating these patients, there has been a dearth of evidence on how this pandemic will affect surgical practice. This paper seeks to review the current evidence and offers recommendations for changes to surgical practice to minimise the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; Novel coronavirus; Surgery.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest None.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Impact on surgical practice. Reprinted by permission from Wolters Kluwer [6] Copy­right (2020).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The adapting role of individual surgeons during the COVID-19 pandemic [17].
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
PHE guidance on appropriate use of PPE [42].
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Surgical pre-operative pathway adapted from Ref. [51,52].
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
COVID-19 patient and health care worker safety checklist [61].
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
COVID-19 Surgical unit equipment list in the Royal London Hospital [62].
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
OR anaesthesiologist workflow for COVID-19 cases. Reprinted by permission from Springer [66], Copyright (2020).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

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