Management of patients with colorectal cancer in COVID-19 pandemic hospital.

INTRODUCTION: During the COVID-19 pandemic, both the channelling of manpower into the COVID-19 services and efforts to limit viral spreading of the disease have led to rescheduling and prioritizing oncological cases that are considered as cases of emergency and any postponement of the cases can lead to health problems. In this study, we aimed to show that the surgical treatment of COVID-19 (-) colorectal cancer patients can be performed in a hospital which was declared as a pandemic hospital. METHOD: In our study, we included patients who underwent surgery for colorectal cancer in the general surgery clinic between the dates 03.20.2020 and 05.20.2020, when the hospital was declared COVID-19 pandemic hospital. Emergency colorectal cancer surgeries such as ileus and perforation were excluded from the study. RESULTS: While in the status of pandemic hospital, 80 COVID-19 (+) and 563 COVID-19 (+) suspicious patients were treated. Between 10 March 2020 and 15 May 2020, 12 colorectal cancer patients were operated in the General Surgery Clinic of BAIBU Faculty of Medicine, as well. CONCLUSION: We think that with our study we have shown that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the surgical treatment can be performed for patients with colorectal cancer by eliminating COVID-19 suspicions (Tab. 1, Ref. 14).

Serum amyloid A and Omentin levels in acute appendicitis: a preliminary study for a novel diagnostic approach.

BACKGROUND: The diagnosis of acute appendicitis is based on medical history and physical examination. Serum (S) amiloid A (AA) levels are elevated in many inflammatory conditions. Omentin is a recently discovered adipokine showing decreased levels associated with inflammatory conditions. We aimed to measure SAA and omentin levels in patients with acute appendicitis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 36 patients with a diagnosis of acute appendicitis and 30 healthy subjects were enrolled to this research study. A statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics Version 16.0 (SPSS Inc.®, Chicago, IL, United States). RESULTS: Patients in study group were significantly older than healthy control subjects (p=0.013). Body mass index of the patients with acute appendicitis (23.2 ± 1.3) was greater than that of the control group (22.7 ± 1), but the difference did not reach the statistically significance (p=0.076). ). Mean level of SAA was significantly raised in study group compared to healthy control subjects (p< 0.001). Mean omentin level was significantly lower in study group compared to healthy subjects (p=0.013). CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, although diagnosis of acute appendicitis is mostly based on clinical findings, omentin and especially SAA measurement in serum may help surgeons to avoid negative laparatomy.