International journal of surgery
-
During the COVID-19 pandemic, surgical departments were forced to re-schedule their activity giving priority to urgent procedures and non-deferrable oncological cases. There is a lack of evidence-based literature providing clinical and organizational guidelines for the management of a general surgery department. Aim of our study was to review the available recommendations published by general Surgery Societies and Health Institutions and evaluate the underlying Literature. ⋯ During COVID-19 pandemic, it is of paramount importance to face the emergency in the most effective and efficient manner, retrieving resources from non-essential settings and, at the same time, providing care to high priority non-COVID-19 related diseases.
-
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has caused great public concern worldwide due to its high rates of infectivity and pathogenicity. The Chinese government responded in a timely manner, alleviated the dilemma, achieved a huge victory and lockdown has now been lifted in Wuhan. However, the outbreak has occurred in more than 200 other countries. ⋯ The spread of COVID-19 overwhelmed the healthcare systems of many countries and even crashed the fragile healthcare systems of some. Although the situation in each country is different, health workers play a critical role in the fight against COVID-19. In this review, we highlight the status of health worker infections in China and other countries, especially the causes of infection in China and the standardised protocol to protect health workers from the perspective of an anaesthesiologist, in the hope of providing references to reduce medical infections and contain the COVID-19 epidemic.
-
Due to high-risk exposure of surgical residents to coronavirus, surgical residency programs have changed their training methods and working hours drastically. The purpose of this study is to find out the positive and negative impacts of the pandemic on surgical residency programs and on the lives of surgical residents. ⋯ The changes in the surgical residency programs amidst the pandemic has reduced the working hours, hands-on and clinical exposure of the surgical residents. Moreover, the situation has provided an opportunity to explore efficient methods of learning that can lead to lesser burnout. However, psychological burdens of surgical residents like fear of acquiring the infection should be appropriately addressed.