Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Surgical Activity of Bellvitge University Hospital

Impact of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Pandemic on the Morbidity and Mortality of Patients Undergoing Surgery at Bellvitge University Hospital

COVID-19 has been a challenge for hospitals; there was an obvious need to reconvert many spaces in specific areas to attend this pathology, without forgetting the attention to other pathologies and surgery. The objective of the investigators is to evaluate the impact of this pandemic in the patients who underwent surgery in Bellvitge University Hospital, analyzing 2 periods of time: the months before the COVID-19 peak and the COVID-19 peak months.

A total of 2.530 procedures have been evaluated in this retrospective observational study. Two groups have been generated (pre-pandemic period and pandemic period), classified into scheduled and emergency surgery. The investigators determined age, type of surgery and specialty, hospital stay, destination at discharge including mortality and severity according to Diagnostic Related to Group (DRG) scale. The investigators have also determined the number of confirmed COVID-19 infections in patients who underwent surgery during these 2 periods and evaluated if the infection was due to a nosocomial infection (confirmation of the COVID-19 during the hospitalization period). Comparisons were made between subgroups: scheduled surgery performed during the 2 periods and emergency surgery performed during the 2 periods.

Inclusion Criteria:

• All surgical patients operated, both elective scheduled and emergent cases

Exclusion Criteria:

• Minor-intermediate surgery that involves discharge from the hospital on the same day of the surgery from the Pre-pandemic period.
• Procedures related to medical treatment or complications of COVID-19 patients, such as chest tubes, extracorporeal oxygenation or tracheostomy.
• Those scheduled elective surgery patients in the Covid period that resulted RT-PCR positive, surgery was posponed, were not considered eligible for the analysis.