• María Salmerón Jiménez, Fátima Hermoso Alarza, Ivan Martínez Serna, Carmen Marrón Fernández, José Carlos Meneses Pardo, José Alberto García Salcedo, Alejandro Torres Serna, Mario Gustavo Manama Gama, Oscar Enrique Colmenares Mendoza, Vicente Diaz-Hellín Gude, and Antonio Pablo Gamez García.
• Department of Thoracic Surgery, 12 de Octubre University Hospital, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
• Eur J Cardiothorac Surg. 2020 Oct 1; 58 (4): 738-744.

ObjectivesThe goal of this study was to describe the clinical features and outcomes of thoracic surgery patients during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.MethodsThirty-five patients were treated at the 12 de Octubre University Hospital in Madrid between 1 March 2020 and 24 April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patient demographics, surgical procedures, complications, COVID-19 symptoms and outcomes were recorded. A protocol was introduced to reduce the risk of operating on patients with COVID-19, including symptom screening, a polymerase chain reaction test for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and computed tomography scans of the chest. Surgical activity changed significantly during this time, from an initial period of near-normal activity, through an emergency-only period and finally a recovery period when some oncological surgical cases were restarted. Selection criteria for surgical patients are also described.ResultsA total of 34 patients underwent surgery during the pandemic period. We performed 22 lung resections (11 lobectomies and 11 sublobar resections). No hospital deaths were recorded. An elective surgery patient and an emergency surgery patient were diagnosed with COVID-19 (5.88%). The former died within 30 days after surgery.ConclusionsSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 represents a tremendous limitation for thoracic surgical practice. Preoperative practices to exclude asymptomatic cases infected with the virus allowed us to perform thoracic surgical procedures.© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. All rights reserved.

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