Safety of gastrointestinal endoscopy during the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic: Asingle tertiary centre prospective study

ABSTRACT

Aims To determine the incidence of COVID-19 transmission following outpatient gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy duringrising community incidence of COVID-19. Methods This prospective study was conducted in a single tertiary referral centre in Dublin. Consecutive patients whoattended the endoscopy unit for a procedure at time points in June, September, and October 2020 were included. Patientsreceived a COVID-19 triage phone call 48 hours before their procedure. COVID-19 testing was not performed beforeoutpatient endoscopy. Inpatients and any outpatient that failed telephone triage were excluded. Standard surgical masks,FFPs and PPE were used by endoscopy staff for all procedures. Patients were contacted 14 days after the procedure toenquire if they had developed symptoms suggestive of COVID-19. Results 522 patients who had GI endoscopy were enrolled, and 506(96.9 %) were contacted for follow up. 163, 157, and186 patients were included in June, September, and October respectively. The mean age was 55.6(range 16-92). Nationallythere were 558, 7430, and 25476 new cases of COVID-19 in June, September, and October respectively. In the two weeks post endoscopy, 7/506(1.3 %) patients required testing for symptoms suggestive of COVID-19. Allpatients had negative results. No member of our endoscopy personnel contracted COVID-19 during the study period. Conclusions This study highlights that the risk of COVID-19 transmission related to GI endoscopy is negligible despitedramatic escalation in community infection.