Recommendations for Safely Performing Major Head and Neck Surgery During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experience with Implementation of a Workflow.
J Maxillofac Oral Surg
; 19(4): 630-637, 2020 Dec.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-746970
ABSTRACT
COVID 19 pandemic has affected the delivery of surgical services as a part of management of head and neck cancers all over the world. Since it may affect the overall cure as well as quality of life of these patients, it is necessary to continue providing surgical treatment but with minimal additional health hazards to the patient or the health care worker. For this, a workflow was formulated in a university teaching hospital in India with large head and neck cancer workload and implemented during the period of national lockdown. 125 major head and neck cancer cases were operated during this period out of which 25 patients were of high-risk status. Emergency (10%) and semi-emergency (83%) cases predominated with few electives. The number of noncancer reconstructive and craniomaxillofacial cases operated was 81, out of which 25% was of emergency in nature. When compared to the data of similar period in the previous year, 60% of the workload in the cancer-related cases could be offered surgical treatment, whereas the noncancer cases operated were only 25%. The workflow may be useful for all surgical departments in safely performing procedures during this pandemic or similar situations in future with suitable refinements.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Prognostic study
Language:
English
Journal:
J Maxillofac Oral Surg
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
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