• Davide Pertile, Marco Gipponi, Alessandra Aprile, Paola Batistotti, Carol Marzia Ferrari, Andrea Massobrio, Domenico Soriero, Lorenzo Epis, and Stefano Scabini.
• General and Oncologic Surgery, IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, Genoa, Italy; davide_pertile@libero.it.
• In Vivo. 2021 Mar 1; 35 (2): 1299-1305.

Background/AimA notable re-allocation of healthcare resources and specific clinical and organizational measures have been required to prevent COVID-19 infection among hospitalized patients and healthcare workers.Patients And MethodsFrom March 9th to May 9th 2020 we performed colorectal cancer elective surgery on 25 patients: a pre-hospital screening was carried out in order to avoid hospitalization of patients suspected of COVID-19 infection.ResultsAll patients (median age=76 years; range=37-88 years) were considered suitable for admission after telephone triage; the median interval between primary diagnosis and hospital admission was 23.1 days (range=1-55 days). The median hospitalization was 7.8 days (range=4-18 days). One COVID-19-associated death was reported.ConclusionOur experience demonstrates that safe colorectal cancer elective surgery can be performed during the pandemic COVID-19. Further consensus and guidelines to prevent diffusion of pandemic diseases among hospitalized patients and healthcare workers still need to be implemented.Copyright© 2021, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.

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