Is It Safe to Perform Lung Surgery During the Coronavirus Pandemic?

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:  Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients are rapidly growing in our community. Patients with compromised lungs and older age are supposedly at high risk of poor outcomes with COVID-19. We aimed to evaluate the COVID-19 impact on lung surgery during this pandemic at our hospital. METHODOLOGY: This is a retrospective study of all lung surgery patients at our hospital in Boca Raton over three months (February to April 2020). All patients who remained for at least one-day inpatient post-lung surgery were assessed to see if they had an increased incidence of coronavirus infection during the hospital stay or at the follow-up office visit. RESULTS: A total of 44 patients underwent thoracic surgery. It was found that there was no incidence of coronavirus infection in these patients. CONCLUSION: With adequate precautions, older patients can undergo lung surgery during this pandemic. There was no incidence of COVID-19 found among the patients during the hospital stay or at the first follow-up in the office. Also, the postoperative course was not adversely affected.