Have General Surgery Practices Decreased During the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Background As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic started, some restrictions were imposed throughout the country. The pandemic caused disruption, reduction, and even a halt in health services worldwide. During this period, the number of procedures performed in surgical clinics decreased due to the interruption of services and the restriction in patient admissions. Methodology In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effect of the pandemic on the number of surgeries performed in our clinic during the pre- and post-pandemic period by evaluating the following elective surgeries conducted between September 2018 and September 2021: upper gastrointestinal system, abdominal wall hernia, gallbladder surgeries, and kidney transplantation. Results A significant decrease was observed in the number of operations before and after the pandemic in our clinic. Conclusions In our opinion, both the Ministry of Health and healthcare institutions should increase the necessary precautions, organize the planning and programming in hospitals, and increase efforts in protecting healthcare workers and patients by increasing surgical practices and ensuring that the healthcare services we provide reach the numbers noted during the pre-pandemic period.

Intraoperative freehand SPECT as an alternative imaging technique for use in radioguided parathyroidectomy.

Freehand single photon emission computed tomography (fhSPECT) is a technique that is used to monitor body's radioactivity intraoperatively. Accordingly, in this study, the feasibility of using fhSPECT for intraoperative 3D mapping in radioguided parathyroidectomy has been assessed. Patients, who were diagnosed with primary hyperparathyroidism consecutively, were scanned intraoperatively using fhSPECT to locate parathyroid adenomas before surgical procedure. The fhSPECT images were acquired intraoperatively using a declipse®SPECT device (SurgicEyeTM). The fhSPECT protocol could not be completed due to the technical problems in one patient. Parathyroid adenoma was located in the first patient with no lateral deviation. Nevertheless, a deviation of 8 mm was detected in the depth of the parathyroid adenoma, which is the distance of parathyroid adenoma from the skin. A 20 mm lateral deviation and a 10 mm deviation in depth were detected in the second patient. In the third patient, as was the case in the first patient, parathyroid adenoma was located with no lateral deviation. However, there was a 15 mm deviation in the depth of the parathyroid adenoma. A 5 mm lateral deviation was detected in the fourth patient yet with no deviation in the depth of parathyroid adenoma. Finally, neither lateral nor vertical deviation was detected in fifth patient. Based on the findings of this study, it was concluded that the fhSPECT technology can be helpful to a certain degree in locating the parathyroid adenoma. However, further studies are needed to support the findings of this preliminary study.