Covid-19 pandemic: Impacts on general surgical practices

ABSTRACT

Introduction: SARS CoV-2 virus is a novel RNA virus, and many of its characters and behaviours are yet to be explored. During this COVID-19 pandemic, there are inundation of recommendations and guidelines. Most of the recommendations have advised postponement of non-essential elective surgery. We continued our emergency and elective surgical works as followed in certain countries, e.g. South Korea and Singapore. Methods: The records of our hospital were reviewed to retrieve the number of daily COVID-19 patients hospitalized, those requiring surgical management and those discharged home Results: During the period from March 25 to August 31, 2020, we have tested (RT-PCR) 892 admitted patients, out of them eighteen came positive (~ 2%) three patients were admitted in emergency basis, rest were for elective surgeries. Except one surgical resident, no HCW of our department was COVID positive during this period. Conclusion: From our experiences, during the said period, we came into conclusion that in no way elective surgeries should be avoided. It will ensure the best care for the non-COVID surgical patients, helps to ease future load and save many lives from denial death. If we maintain simple precautions,then elective surgical services can easily run without special equipment and theatre.