Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the approach to emergency surgery: a comparative study

Background & objective: Corona pandemic has had profound effects on the practice of healthcare delivery across the globe. The institutional practices and protocols had to be rewritten to cope up with the surge of corona patients and to save the staff and the non-corona patients. We evaluated the emergency surgery cases during the first wave of COVID-19 after the decision to stop elective surgeries, in regard to differences in terms of case distribution, patient profile, anesthesia methods used and the management, and compared with an equivalent period before the pandemic. Methodology: Patient files related to emergency surgery from October-November 2019 and April-May 2020, were retrospectively evaluated. Assessment parameters included age, gender, surgical discipline, ASA score, type of anesthesia, time to discharge, reoperation, laparoscopic or open surgery.Results: The most common surgical cases in both periods belonged to general surgery. While the number of patients in ASA-I decreased during the COVID period, those in ASA-II increased. We found that while general anesthesia was preferred in majority of the surgeries during the non-COVID period, spinal anesthesia gained popularity in the COVID period (p < 0.05).Conclusion: The decrease in the number of patients with ASA-I indicates a change in the surgeons' priorities in emergency surgery cases. Although there is a worldwide approach to the use of laparoscopic surgery, the use of open surgical techniques increased in our hospital.