Urology Surgical Activity and COVID‐19: Risk Assessment at the Epidemic Peak: a Parisian Multicentre Experience

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the risk of contracting severe COVID-19, defined as COVID-19 specific intensive care unit (ICU) admission or death, for patients undergoing urological surgery during the epidemic. To define consequences of receiving surgery for COVID-19 patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS This is a multicenter observational cohort study. Every patient receiving a urological procedure in Paris academic urological centers during the 4 initial weeks of surgical restrictions were included. Their status was updated minimum 3 weeks after the procedure. The main outcomes were the COVID-19 specific ICU admission and death. Statistics were mostly descriptive. The Post-operative COVID-19 confirmed group was compared with non-COVID patients using Chi-square tests for categorical and Wilcoxon test tests for continuous variables. RESULTS During the 4-week period, 552 patients received surgery within 8 centers. At follow-up, 57 (10%) patients were lost. Among the 11 preoperative COVID-19 cases, one remained in ICU, no new admission, and no death. For the non-COVID patients, 57 (12%) developed COVID-related symptoms; only one case (0.2%) required COVID-19 specific ICU and 3 (0.6%) patients died of COVID-19 after surgery. CONCLUSIONS Performing urological surgery during the COVID-19 epidemic peak has a limited impact on ICU admissions but presents a real (0.6%) risk of specific mortality. Surgical activities should be maintained according to this risk.