Is It Safe to Perform Lung Surgery During the Coronavirus Pandemic?

Anupam K Gupta; Max Jackson; Thomas Genuit; John Roberts

doi:10.7759/cureus.9749

Is It Safe to Perform Lung Surgery During the Coronavirus Pandemic?

Cureus. 2020 Aug 14;12(8):e9749. doi: 10.7759/cureus.9749.

Authors

Anupam K Gupta¹, Max Jackson², Thomas Genuit², John Roberts³

Affiliations

¹ Minimally Invasive Surgery, University of Miami Hospital, Miami, USA.
² Thoracic Surgery, Bethesda Hospital East, Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, Boynton Beach, USA.
³ Thoracic Surgery, Delray Medical Center, Johns Hopkins University, Delray Beach, USA.

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients are rapidly growing in our community. Patients with compromised lungs and older age are supposedly at high risk of poor outcomes with COVID-19. We aimed to evaluate the COVID-19 impact on lung surgery during this pandemic at our hospital.

Methodology: This is a retrospective study of all lung surgery patients at our hospital in Boca Raton over three months (February to April 2020). All patients who remained for at least one-day inpatient post-lung surgery were assessed to see if they had an increased incidence of coronavirus infection during the hospital stay or at the follow-up office visit.

Results: A total of 44 patients underwent thoracic surgery. It was found that there was no incidence of coronavirus infection in these patients.

Conclusion: With adequate precautions, older patients can undergo lung surgery during this pandemic. There was no incidence of COVID-19 found among the patients during the hospital stay or at the first follow-up in the office. Also, the postoperative course was not adversely affected.

Keywords: covid-19; lung cancer; lung surgery; thoracic surgery.