Journal of Surgery
Research Article
General Surgery during Pandemic Era – Evolving Strategies: A Cohort Study from a Tertiary Care Centre in North India
Verma N1, Sehgal L2, Wadhawan R3, Minhas V4 and Gupta M 5
1Department of Minimal Access, GI & Bariatric Surgery, HCMCT Manipal Hospital, India
2Department of General and Liver Transplant Anesthesia, Liver Critical Care, HCMCT Manipal Hospital, India
3Department of Minimal Access, GI & Bariatric Surgery, HCMCT Manipal Hospital, India
4Department of General and Liver Transplant Anesthesia, HCMCT Manipal Hospital, India
5Department of Minimal Access, GI & Bariatric Surgery, HCMCT Manipal Hospital, India
*Address for Correspondence: Wadhawan R, Consultant and Head Department of Minimal Access, Bariatric and GI Surgery HCMCT Manipal Hospital Sector 6, Dwarka, New Delhi110075,Tel: 91-9810155826 India; Email: randeepwadhawan@yahoo.com
Submission: 19 April, 2021;
Accepted: 25 May, 2021;
Published: 31 May, 2021
Copyright: © 2021 Verma N. This is an open access article distributed
under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided
the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Due to Corona Virus disease 2019 (CoViD-19) pandemic,
healthcare systems worldwide have been suffering in terms of their
capability to manage affected people and the ability to provide
standard treatment. Multiple vaccines have been developed and
it is being implemented globally on a large scale. However, mutant
strains of the virus are being detected from all parts of the world
and pandemic and it’s associated concerns are continuing. With
the majority of patients being asymptomatic and high infectivity,
safety related concerns have been there both for patients as well
as healthcare workers. Various academic associations have issued
guidelines to address these issues. The authors aim to provide a
comprehensive overview of essential measures that healthcare
providers and surgeons adopted to ensure safe performance of both
elective and emergency surgical procedures at their institute.
Total of 506 patients underwent 512 general surgical elective and
emergency procedures between 1st April 2020 to 31st December
2020 for different indications. The surgeries included both laparoscopic
and open approaches. The strategies for preoperative testing for the
presence of SARS nCov2 have been varying with availability of more
evidence and techniques. For the initial six months, it was primarily RT
PCR for both elective and emergency cases. However, in the last three
months, the majority of the patients were tested for SARS nCov2 via RT
PCR and emergency cases who were tested by CBNAAT Gene-Xpert.
The pandemic has affected the patient care globally. Various
guidelines have been issued by different academic associations.
However, every institution has to improvise depending upon the local
resources and infrastructure available. With continuing pandemic
every institution shall require infrastructural changes to continue to
deal with continuous inflow of infected patients.