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Mandatory preoperative COVID‐19 testing for cancer patients—Is it justified?
Author(s) -
Nekkanti Sri Siddhartha,
Nair Sudhir,
Parmar Vani,
Saklani Avanish,
Shrikhande Shailesh,
Shetty Nitin,
Joshi Amit,
Murthy Vedang,
Patkar Nikhil,
Khattry Navin,
Gupta Sudeep
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of surgical oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.201
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1096-9098
pISSN - 0022-4790
DOI - 10.1002/jso.26187
Subject(s) - medicine , asymptomatic , covid-19 , incidence (geometry) , cohort , surgery , retrospective cohort study , cohort study , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty) , physics , optics
Background Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 has caused substantial disruptions in routine clinical care. Emerging data show that surgery in coronavirus disease (COVID)‐positive cases can be associated with worsening of clinical outcomes and increased postoperative mortality. Hence, preoperative COVID‐19 testing for all patients before elective surgery was implemented in our institution. Materials and Methods Two hundred and sixty‐two asymptomatic cancer patients were preoperatively tested for COVID‐19 using reverse‐transcription polymerase chain reaction technique with nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabbing. All negative patients were operated within 72 hours, and positive patients were quarantined for a minimum 14 days before re‐swabbing. Results In our cohort, 21 of 262 (8.0%) asymptomatic preoperative patients, who were otherwise fit for surgery, tested positive. After adequate quarantine and a negative follow‐up test report, 12 of 21 (57%) had an operation. No major postoperative morbidity due to COVID‐19 was noted during the immediate postoperative period before discharge from the hospital. Conclusion Routine preoperative COVID‐19 testing was successful in identifying asymptomatic viral carriers. There was no incidence of symptomatic COVID‐19 disease in the postoperative period, and there was no incidence of morbidity attributable to COVID‐19. These data suggested a beneficial role for mandatory preoperative COVID‐19 testing.