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MADRID, 12 (EUROPA PRESS)
Perform nasal swab tests before surgery to detect COVID-19 in patients without symptoms related to a lower rate of severe respiratory complications and make surgery safer. Therefore, the researchers stress that routine preoperative swab testing should be part of a broader strategy to reduce exposure to COVID-19 in patients entering the operating room.
According to research published in the British Journal of Surgery, scientists working together around the world have found that using a nasal swab to confirm that an asymptomatic patient was not infected with SARS-CoV-2 was associated with a lower rate of postoperative complications. The main benefit was seen before major surgery and in areas with a higher rate of COVID-19.
The swab test gave surgeons the opportunity to identify asymptomatic infected patients and postpone their surgery, avoiding the serious risk of COVID-19 complications after surgery. Routine testing also helped prevent cross-infection from symptom-free patients to other elective surgical patients upon hospital admission.
Led by researchers from the University of Birmingham in the UK, the COVIDSurg Collaboration is made up of experts from over 130 countries. The group is calling for preoperative swab testing for all patients as part of a broader strategy to continue surgery safely during the pandemic.
The collaboration supports this call with the launch of a dedicated “toolkit” that will help hospitals and healthcare professionals around the world get their elective surgery back on track after more than 28 million patients have been referred. procedures in the first phase. of the global pandemic.
Collaborative leader Dr. Aneel Bhangu of the NIHR’s Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery at the University of Birmingham notes that the results “demonstrate great variation across countries in the application of preoperative testing. A clear benefit of the tests was found. , only 1 in 4 patients were screened for infections, demonstrating the need for global expansion and standardization of swab tests around the world. “
He says “preoperative swab testing should not be considered in isolation but rather as part of a broader plan to minimize risks to patients, including the establishment of COVID-19-free surgical pathways in all hospitals that perform elective surgeries. For major surgeries, one severe postoperative complication was avoided for every 17 tests performed. “
Therefore, they urge healthcare professionals to provide a routine swab test for all patients undergoing elective surgery, “regardless of whether they have symptoms or not.”
The COVIDSurg toolkit will support individual hospitals, regions and countries during a major global reorganization of surgical services during the pandemic and beyond, summarizing published data to support safe surgical practice, guiding effective surgical recovery plans, and creating a five-year vision of an intervention safe and effective surgery that addresses global challenges, including gaps in access to surgery that existed before the pandemic.
Dr James Glasbey, head of the study at the University of Birmingham, comments that “surgery is an essential part of all health systems and remains the cure for most cancers and is the basis of treatment for many diseases. Contagious. “.
“Our new toolset will help everyone involved in surgical planning for the next 5 years, including providers, healthcare leaders, patients, governments, financiers and industry,” he points out. “Tackles global challenges, but adapts locally to hospitals.” . and environments with variable access to resources “.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, 5 billion people lacked access to surgical care and 143 million more operations were needed worldwide, researchers recall, and there was already significant global inequality in access to safe surgery. and affordable in low- and middle-income countries, with an urgent need to expand capacity.
They regret that the pandemic has seriously worsened this situation and highlighted the need to change the way surgery is performed. Launched in March 2020, the COVIDSurg collaboration provided the data needed to support this change in the fastest timeframe ever seen by a surgical research team, with data from 150,000 patients in 2,000 hospitals collected over the past 9 months.
Last month, in their previous report, COVIDSurg researchers asked hospitals to establish “COVID-19 free” zones for surgical patients to help save lives during the second wave of the pandemic by reducing the risk of death. from coronavirus-associated lung infections.
They found that patients undergoing surgery and inpatient care in “COVID-19-free” areas performed better, improving the safety of surgery thanks to a strict policy that no patients treated with COVID-19 mix with those who were. A surgery.
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