ABSTRACT
Patients with cancer are at higher risk for adverse coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outcomes. Here, we studied 1,253 patients with cancer, who were diagnosed with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 at a tertiary referral cancer center in India. Most patients had mild disease; in our settings, recent cancer therapies did not impact COVID-19 outcomes. Advancing age, smoking history, concurrent comorbidities and palliative intent of treatment were independently associated with severe COVID-19 or death. Thus, our study provides useful insights into cancer management during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Neoplasms , COVID-19/epidemiology , Humans , Neoplasms/epidemiology , Pandemics , Risk Factors , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The COVID-19 pandemic, with high rate of asymptomatic infections and increased perioperative complications, prompted widespread adoption of screening methods. We analyzed the incidence of asymptomatic infection and perioperative outcomes in patients undergoing cancer surgery. We also studied the impact on subsequent cancer treatment in those with COVID-19. METHODS: All patients who underwent elective and emergency cancer surgery from April to September 2020 were included. After screening for symptoms, a preoperative test was performed from nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs before the procedure. Patients were followed up for 30 days postoperatively and complications were noted. RESULTS: 2108 asymptomatic patients were tested, of which 200 (9.5%) tested positive. Of those who tested positive, 140 (70%) underwent the planned surgery at a median of 30 days from testing positive, and 20 (14.3%) had ≥ Grade III complications. Forty (20%) patients did not receive the intended treatment; 110 patients were retested in the Postoperative period, and 41 (37.3%) tested positive and 9(22%) patients died of COVID-related complications. CONCLUSION: Routine preoperative testing for COVID-19 helps to segregate patients with asymptomatic infection. Higher complications occur in those who develop COVID-19 in postoperative period. Prolonged delay in surgery after COVID infection may influence planned treatment.
Subject(s)
Asymptomatic Infections/epidemiology , COVID-19 Testing , COVID-19/epidemiology , Neoplasms/surgery , Postoperative Complications/etiology , Preoperative Care , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , COVID-19/complications , COVID-19/diagnosis , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Incidence , India/epidemiology , Infant , Infant, Newborn , Male , Middle Aged , Neoplasms/complications , Postoperative Complications/diagnosis , Postoperative Complications/epidemiology , Retrospective Studies , Risk Factors , Young AdultABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: There are reports of outcomes of elective major cancer surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic. We evaluated if reinforcement of hand hygiene, universal masking, and distancing as a part of pandemic precautions led to a decrease in the incidence of surgical site infections (SSIs) in major oncologic resections. METHODS: Propensity score matching using the nearest neighbor algorithm was performed on 3123 patients over seven covariates (age, comorbidities, surgery duration, prior treatment, disease stage, reconstruction, and surgical wound type) yielding 2614 matched (pre-COVID 1612 and COVID 1002) patients. Conditional logistic regression was used to identify if SSI incidence was lower amongst patients operated during the pandemic. RESULTS: There was a 4.2% (p = 0.006) decrease in SSI in patients operated during the pandemic. On multivariate regression, surgery during the COVID-19 period (odds ratio [OR] = 0.77; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.61-0.98; p = 0.03), prior chemoradiation (OR = 2.46; CI = 1.45-4.17; p < 0.001), duration of surgery >4 h (OR = 2.17; 95%CI = 1.55-3.05; p < 0.001) and clean contaminated wounds (OR = 2.50; 95% CI = 1.09-2.18; p = 0.012) were significantly associated with SSI. CONCLUSION: Increased compliance with hand hygiene, near-universal mask usage, and social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic possibly led to a 23% decreased odds of SSI in major oncologic resections. Extending these low-cost interventions in the post-pandemic era can decrease morbidity associated with SSI in cancer surgery.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/epidemiology , Infection Control , Neoplasms/surgery , Surgical Wound Infection/epidemiology , Algorithms , COVID-19/prevention & control , Elective Surgical Procedures , Female , Humans , Incidence , Logistic Models , Male , Middle Aged , Odds Ratio , Propensity Score , Retrospective Studies , Risk FactorsABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has gripped the world and is evolving day by day with deaths every hour. Being immunocompromised, cancer patients are more susceptible to contract the infection. Onco-surgeries on such immunocompromised patients have an increased risk of infection of COVID-19 to patients and health care workers. The society of Onco-Anesthesia and Perioperative Care (SOAPC) thereby came out with an advisory for safe perioperative management of cancer surgery during this challenging time of the COVID-19 pandemic.