Current Thoracic Surgery 2023 , Vol 8 , Issue 1
A thoracic surgery consensus statement for performing thoracic surgery in SARS-CoV-2 pandemic
Akif Turna1,İsmail Sarbay1,Ahmet Demirkaya2,Korkut Bostancı3,Deniz Sansar4,Mehmet Yıldırım5
1Department of Thoracic Surgery, Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa, Cerrahpaşa Medical Faculty, İstanbul, Turkey
2Department of Thoracic Surgery, Beykent University Faculty of Medicine, İstanbul, Turkey
3Department of Thoracic Surgery, Marmara University Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey
4Division of Thoracic Surgery, Yedikule Teaching Hospital for Chest Diseases and Thoracic Surgery, Istanbul, Turkey
5Division of Thoracic Surgery, Dr. Siyami Ersek Hospital for Cardiothoracic Surgery, Istanbul, Turkey
DOI : 10.26663/cts.2023.006 Viewed : 1382 - Downloaded : 538 Background: Spreading to almost all countries in the world, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted healthcare and prevented or postponed major thoracic surgeries. In this study, members of the Turkish Society of Thoracic Surgery report a consensus reached by the members for providing thoracic surgery safely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Materials and Methods: In this study, a questionnaire included categories of questions aimed to explore the aspect and perspectives of the professionals in the field. The survey was distributed through the email platform of the National Association which includes active members of the society and it was kept open between the 8th of April and the 7th of May 2021.

Results: Eighty members of the national association completed the survey. Most of the respondents were academic surgeons from university hospitals (43.8%) or teaching hospitals for thoracic surgery (36.3%). Almost all respondents agreed that patients with lung cancer and prolonged air leaks should be operated during the pandemic (98.8% and 96.3% respectively). The majority required that patients should be quarantined at the hospital or home up to 1 week before surgery. Academic surgeons statistically significantly more frequently thought that the quarantine period was unnecessary (p = 0.045). Most respondents indicated that stage IA to IIIA lung cancer patients should be operated. All respondents agreed that patients can be operated on provided that a PCR-negative swab test. Most of the professors thought elective surgeries should be delayed 1 to 4 weeks while some surgeons believed the delay should be more than a month (p = 0.028).

Conclusions: Thoracic surgery services for patients with thoracic should be maintained during the COVID-19 pandemic. We as thoracic surgeons are responsible to perform good surgical management of patients during this and any future pandemic. Keywords : COVID-19, thoracic surgery, consensus, report, survey