ABSTRACT
Background: The COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic is the largest global event of recent times, leaving millions infected and hundreds of thousands of dead worldwide. Colombia is no stranger to this situation, being subject to massive cancellations of medically necessary surgical procedures categorized as ¨non vital¨. The objective of this study is to show the results of a program of elective essential and non-essential low and medium complexity orthopedic surgeries performed during the mitigation phase of the COVID-19 pandemic with a pre-surgical clinical protocol, without serological or molecular testing, during April, 2020 in two institutions in Bogotá, Colombia. Method: ology : A multicenter, observational, retrospective, descriptive study of a cohort of patients who underwent elective orthopedic surgery at two institutions in the city of Bogota, Colombia, during April 2020. We performed a preoperative clinical protocol without including serological or molecular tests, an epidemiological survey, describing the type of surgery, their score in the MeNTs (medically necessary time sensitive) scale, and the presence of suggestive symptoms of COVID-19 postoperatively. Results: : A total of 179 patients underwent orthopedic surgery with an average age of 47 years (swilk= 0.021) (Shapiro-Wilk) ranging between 18 and 81 years, with a majority of females (61.5%). As for the surgeries, 86 (48%) were knee operations, 42 (23.5%) hand surgeries, 34 (19%) shoulder surgeries, and 17 (9.5%) foot and ankle surgeries. The average MeNTS of all patients was 44.6 points. During the two weeks after surgery, four patients were considered suspects for COVID-19 for presenting at least two symptoms associated with the disease representing an incidence of 2.3%. Two (1.1%) of these four patients consulted an emergency department where RT-PCR(reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) type tests were performed, obtaining a negative result for SARSCov-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus-2). No patients died or were hospitalized for symptoms associated with COVID-19. Conclusion: : Through the implementation of a pre-surgical clinical protocol (physical examination, clinical survey inquiring about signs, symptoms and epidemiological contacts), a pre-surgical isolation and without the performance of molecular or serological diagnostic tests, the present study showed good results in the performance of low and medium complexity elective orthopedic surgery at an early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Level of evidence : IV.