Breast Cancer Surgery in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Validation of a Preventive Program for Patients and Health Care Workers.
In Vivo
; 35(1): 635-639, 2021.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1011856
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND/AIM:
The perspective validation of a selective approach in patients undergoing breast cancer surgery was performed in order to assess whether patients as well as Health Care Workers (HCWs) were exposed to any undue risk of COVD-19 infection. PATIENTS ANDMETHODS:
From March 9th to June 9th 2020, 207 patients were phone-triaged by a dedicated Breast Care Nurse; a patient-tailored program was adopted with the aim of avoiding hospitalization of SARS-CoV-2 symptomatic patients, with a careful prioritization of surgical procedures according to specific disease features.RESULTS:
Two hundred and three out of 207 patients underwent operation; seven patients were temporarily excluded because they tested positive at phone triage (n=3), or in-hospital triage (n=3); another asymptomatic patient with negative NP swab tested IgM Ab-positive so that surgery was re-scheduled two weeks later. Four patients had no surgery; one of them was reconsidered for neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) after testing positive at phone triage; three patients were excluded because they were already hospitalized for COVID-19. Overall, mean in-hospital stay was 2.2 days (±SD, 0.7) and, after hospital discharge, no patient required readmission.CONCLUSION:
This preventive program avoided any COVID-19 infection among patients and HCWs, so that an elective breast cancer surgical procedure can be safely and timely pursued without affecting the oncologic outcome.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Preventive Health Services
/
Breast Neoplasms
/
Health Personnel
/
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
/
Mastectomy
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Middle aged
Language:
English
Journal:
In Vivo
Journal subject:
Neoplasms
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Invivo.12302
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