Management of Cardiac Surgery in a Pandemic Region Hospital: Precautions, Results and Experiences During COVID-19.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the present study was to share the experiences gained from emergency and semiemergency cases of open heart surgery performed during the COVID-19 outbreak in Necmettin Erbakan University Meram Medical Faculty Hospital, which was defined as a pandemic hospital by Turkish Ministry of Health and provided third degree health services.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

A total of 54 patients were retrospectively analyzed between 23 March and 22 May 2020, who were diagnosed to have aortic dissection, coronary artery disease, and heart valve diseases.

RESULTS

Thirty-two CABG, 12 valve surgery, 6 aortic surgery, 4 CABG + valve surgeries were performed. During the postoperative follow-up of 11 patients, who were suspicious of COVID-19, 8 of them displayed respiratory problems and partial oxygen depletion and required continuous positive airway pressure. The hospitalization duration of COVID-19-suspicious patients were approximately 5 days longer than that of normal patients. In one of the patient, who was treated positive for COVID-19, acute coronary syndrome developed and CABG was performed following the treatment.

CONCLUSION

During the pandemic period, acute cardiac diseases needing urgent surgery could be misdiagnosed because of similar symptoms with COVID-19 and the health care practitioners concentrated with the COVID-19 primarily. On the other hand, pandemic fear could cause delayed admission to the hospital and increased postoperative mortality and morbidity. When a COVID-19-positive or -suspicious patient undergo open-heart surgery, problems resulting from both COVID-19 infection and cardiopulmonary bypass-associated systemic effects could arise. The combination of these two cases could worsen the complications.