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. 2023 Jun;18(4):662-667.
doi: 10.1177/15589447211064360. Epub 2021 Dec 21.

Evaluation of the COVID-19 Infection Rate in the Perioperative Period of Elective Surgeries of the Hand and Microsurgery

Vinícius Thiago Conde Bertelli  1 , Luis Guilherme Rosifini Alves Rezende  1 , Filipe Jun Shimaoka  1 , Luiz Garcia Mandarano Filho  1 , Nilton Mazzer  1 , Cláudio Henrique Barbieri  1
Affiliations

Evaluation of the COVID-19 Infection Rate in the Perioperative Period of Elective Surgeries of the Hand and Microsurgery

Vinícius Thiago Conde Bertelli et al. Hand (N Y). 2023 Jun.

Abstract

Background: After the beginning of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic (coronavirus disease 2019 [COVID-19]), the world started reducing the number of elective surgeries to reduce the transmission of the coronavirus. Some priority elective surgeries were performed, and there was no increase in contagion rates due to safety protocols and protection measures. The study aims to present the coronavirus infection rate of elective hand surgeries and microsurgery performed during pandemics.

Methods: A retrospective study evaluating 188 patients submitted to elective surgical procedures. The exclusion criteria were patients infected by COVID-19 before the surgery and patients who submitted to trauma surgery. Only 108 patients were eligible for this study. The mean age was 47.8 years (range: 15 days-81 years). There were 63 females and 45 males. They were divided into 2 groups: outpatient (n = 49) and inpatient (n = 59) procedures.

Results: The overall COVID infection rate was 6.48%. The outpatient infection rate was 2.08%, whereas the inpatient infection rate was 10.17% (Student t test: P = .089). The main factor correlated with infection in the postoperative period was the number of postoperative outpatient visits (Student t test: P = .089). No statistical differences were observed between the variables studied, but there was a tendency for patients who submitted to inpatient surgery to get infected by COVID-19 (P = .089). The statistical power was 0.8 (Cohen's d test), showing that large samples are needed to analyze the correlation better.

Conclusion: We concluded that the safety of performing elective hand surgery during the pandemic remains unclear, and more studies with larger samples are needed.

Keywords: COVID; coronavirus; hand surgery; microsurgery; pandemic.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Distribution of the location of surgeries performed. Elbow/Arm, lower limbs, and spine refer to the localization where microsurgeries were performed.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Inpatient versus outpatient surgical localization percentage.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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