Outcome of COVID-19 with co-existing surgical emergencies in children: our initial experiences and recommendations (preprint)

ABSTRACT

Background: COVID 19 has changed the practice of surgery vividly all over the world. Pediatric surgery is not an exception. Prioritization protocols allowing us to provide emergency surgical care to the children in need while controlling the pandemic spread. The aim of this study is to share our experiences with the outcome of children with COVID 19 who had a co existing surgical emergency. Methods: This is a retrospective observational study. We reviewed the epidemiological, clinical, and laboratory data of all patients admitted in our surgery department through the emergency department and later diagnosed to have COVID 19 by RT PCR. The study duration was 3 months (April 2020 to June 2020). A nasopharyngeal swab was taken from all patients irrespective of symptoms to detect SARS CoV 2 by RT PCR with the purpose of detecting asymptomatic patients and patients with atypical symptoms. Emergency surgical services were provided immediately without delay and patients with positive test results were isolated according to the hospital protocol. We divided the test positive patients into 4 age groups for the convenience of data analysis. Data were retrieved from hospital records and analyzed using SPSS (version 25) software. Ethical permission was taken from the hospital ethical review board. Results: Total patients were 32. Seven (21.9%) of them were neonates. Twenty four (75%) patients were male. The predominant diagnosis was acute abdomen followed by infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis (IHPS), myelomeningocele, and intussusception. Only two patients had mild respiratory symptoms (dry cough). Fever was present in 13 (40.6%) patients. Fourteen (43.8%) patients required surgical treatment. The mean duration of hospital stay was 5.5 days. One neonate with ARM died in the postoperative ward due to cardiac arrest. No patient had hypoxemia or organ failure. Seven health care workers (5.51%) including doctors & nurses got infected with SARS Co V2 during this period. Conclusion: Our study has revealed a milder course of COVID 19 in children with minimal infectivity even when present in association with emergency surgical conditions. This might encourage a gradual restart to mitigate the impact of COVID 19 on children surgery. Keywords COVID 19, COVID 19 in children, Children Surgery, Surgical emergency, Surgery in COVID 19 positive patients.