The management of surgical patients in emergency setting during COVID-19 pandemic. The WSES position paper

BackgroundSince the COVID-19 pandemic has occurred, nations showed their unpreparedness to deal with a mass casualty incident of this proportion and severity. The World Society of Emergency Surgery (WSES) conceived this position paper with the purpose of providing recommendations for the management of surgical, infected and non-infected, patients in emergency setting under COVID-19 pandemic in the safety of the patient and health care workers based on available evidences and experienced surgeons’opinion.MethodA systematic review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P)through the MEDLINE (PubMed), Embase and SCOPUS databases. Synthesis of evidence, statements and recommendations were developed in accordance with the GRADE methodology.ResultsGiven the limitation of the evidence, the current document represents an effort to provide a guide for emergency surgeons to perform safely surgery during this pandemic on the basis of evidence medicine and principles of mass casualty incident management to limit the diffusion of the infection among patients and health care workers. ConclusionsWe recommend screening for COVID-19 infection at emergency department, all surgical patients with clinical and epidemiologic features suspect for COVID-19 disease who are waiting for hospital admission and urgent surgery. The screening provides performing a RT-PCR naso-pharyngeal swab test and a baseline (non-contrast) chest CT or chest X-ray or lungs US, depending on skills and availability.The management of COVID-19 surgical patient is multidiplinary.If an immediate surgical procedure is mandatory, whether laparoscopic or via open approach, we recommend doing every efforts to protect the operating room staff, in the safety of the patient . We recommend not being present during the intubation and extubation maneuvers (1A).To perform a safe surgical procedure, we recommend:-having a trained staff, wearing the necessary personal protective equipments, and an established protocol for the preoperative, peri-operative and postoperative management of the COVID-19 surgical patient;-being careful in the establishment and management of the artificial pneumoperitoneum, in the control of the hemostasis and of incisions to prevent any loss of biological fluids and contamination of the surgical staff;-using of all available devices to remove smoke and aerosol during the operation and a closed suction system for artificial pneumoperitoneum, especially if there is a risk of conversion to laparotomy.If it is not possible to perform surgery in a safe and protected environment, we recommend do not underestimating the highest risk of contamination and infection for health care workers and dissemination of the virus in the hospital and to consider transferring the patient in a COVID HUB hospital for the appropriate management.The administration of prophylactic anticoagulation with LMWH is recommended as soon as possible in COVID-19 patients to reduce thromboembolic risk related to the virus and sepsis, decreasing the mortality rate. We recommend to carefully administrating antibiotics in COVID-19 surgical patients for the high risk of selecting resistant bacteria, especially in patients admitted in ICU for mechanical ventilation. Early empirical antibiotic treatment should be targeted to results from cultures, with de-escalation of treatment as soon as possible. We recommend against empirical antifungal treatment in all surgical COVID-19 patients but to consider it in critically ill patients.