Recommendations for acting in elective and urgent thoracic surgery during SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Spanish Society of Thoracic Surgery

Lung cancer surgical treatment during the pandemic: a challenging situation

“…Lung cancer surgical treatment during the pandemic: a challenging situation guidelines, as most of which use oncological criteria almost exclusively, with symptomatic criteria being limited to just one or two items out of a total of almost thirty (8,10) and some using no clinical items at all (15).…”

“…Regarding surgical treatment, and in order to minimize the deleterious effects of being unable to properly care for lung cancer patients, national and international societies proposed protocols and triage guidelines ( 8 - 10 ) in an attempt to prioritize surgery for pathological stages at which waiting is not an option; i.e., in patients with potentially more aggressive diseases, those in need of staging to start treatment or postinduction treatment cancers. The objective of these guidelines was, on the one hand, to try to make use of the few operating rooms available as efficiently as possible, especially in the worst stages of the pandemic and, on the other, to try to avoid infected patients undergoing surgery.…”

Reactivación de la práctica quirúrgica electiva y estrategias de priorización durante pandemia por SARS-CoV2: Una experiencia exitosa

“…El impacto de la pandemia obligo a las instituciones en salud a expandir su capacidad instalada en camas UCI y hospitalización (8) por la demanda hospitalaria desmedida, generando un impacto negativo sobre la cirugía electiva y sobre el diagnóstico y tratamiento los pacientes con patología oncológica (9). La dinámica variable de la pandemia dio origen a protocolos de actuación en el área quirúrgica(6) para llevar a cabo cirugías de forma segura tanto para los usuarios del sistema de salud, como para el talento humano que presta los servicios en salud (10), estableciendo como pilar fundamental el uso correcto de elementos de protección personal (EPP) (11) ya que su uso inadecuado es factor de riesgo de infección por SARS-CoV2 (12). Todo este contexto genera estrés en el talento humano que presta servicios de atención en salud; principalmente en aquellos que realizan el abordaje inicial durante la pandemia por SARS-CoV2 (13,14) Teniendo en cuenta estas consideraciones es necesario orientar al personal de salud e instituciones, para la iniciación de programas quirúrgicos electivos usando adecuada y oportunamente los respectivos EPP (6).…”

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic in thoracic surgery training in Spain

“…Entire medical specialties had to be reorganized to correctly prioritize the pathology, while also attempting to minimize the impact of the extreme levels of hospital occupation by patients with respiratory infection (up to 105% in some hospitals, or 300% in intensive care units) 2 as well as its effect on patients with other non-delayable pathologies. 3 , 4 …”