• Charalampos Seretis, Lucy Archer, Lida Lalou, Shuker Yahia, Christian Katz, Iram Parwaiz, Altaf Haji, and Lourdusamy Selvam.
• Department of General Surgery, George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, United Kingdom.
• Med Glas (Zenica). 2020 Aug 1; 17 (2): 275-278.

AbstractAim The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on the delivery of elective, as well as emergency surgery on a world-wide scale. Up to date few studies have actually assessed the impact of COVID-19 on the postoperative morbidity and mortality following emergency gastrointestinal surgery. Herein, we present our relevant experience over a 3-month period of uninterrupted provision of emergency general surgery services in George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust, the United Kingdom. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of a prospective institutional database, which included the operation types, paraclinical investigations and postoperative complications of all patients undergoing emergency general surgery operations between March - May 2020. Results The occurrence of a 5% overall respiratory complication rate postoperatively, with 3% infection rate for COVID-19 was found; no patient had unplanned return to intensive care for ventilator support and there was no mortality related to COVID-19 infection. Conclusion When indicated, emergency surgery should not be delayed in favour of expectant/conservative management in fear of COVID-19-related morbidity or mortality risks.Copyright© by the Medical Assotiation of Zenica-Doboj Canton.

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