The Pectus Excavatum is one of the pathologies that are also affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the situation gradually returns to normal, surgeons specialized in thoracic surgery restore their scheduled surgical activity.
The entire healthcare System, public and private, has turned to combat the effects caused by SARS-COV2, regardless of its medical or surgical specialty. This has contributed to ensuring that none of these patients stopped receiving the care they needed.
One of the effects of this pandemic is that patients with pathologies other than COVID-19 have altered the scheduling of their visits and other medical services, including those affected by Pectus Excavatum.
The main societies of thoracic surgeons recognized worldwide, such as the Spanish Society for Thoracic Surgery (SECT) and the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons (ESTS), debate on how to guarantee healthcare activity for patients with pathologies other than those produced by Coronavirus.
On April 12, ESTS presented the results of a survey on Thoracic Surgery at the time of this pandemic. Thoracic surgeons from countries around the world, including Spain, participated in this survey. Among the different questions asked, it is worth highlighting:
How is the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the normal operation of your hospital, and also, your department?
The result was that 20% / 24.5% of surgeons considered the involvement as moderate (more postponed surgeries), 53% / 47.5% as considerable (only urgent medical or oncological surgeries were performed, with minimal staff and ICU beds available) and 15% / 8% as extreme (almost the entire hospital was dedicated to COVID-19 patients, all ICU beds occupied by this type of patient, and only urgent surgeries were performed).
On the other hand, on May 21 the Scientific Committee of the SECT https://www.sect.es/index.php/la-sociencia/junta-directiva-y-comites held a webinar where the result was presented of a report on scheduled surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic: “Thoracic Surgery in times of pandemic. Between security and risk ”.
This webinar was organized by the SECT in collaboration with the SECT Foundation and Medtronic, and in the session participated Dr. Néstor Martínez from the La Ribera University Hospital and President of the SECT Scientific Committee, Dr. Jose Ramón Jarabo from the San Carlos Clinical Hospital and Dr. Alberto Cabañero of the Ramón y Cajal University Hospital.
The main premise of the report is how the health system was focused on the treatment of pathologies derived from COVID-19, with elective non-COVID-19 activity suspended in many areas, such as in the case of thoracic surgery, which is an eminently oncological specialty.
One of the objectives of the report is to offer recommendations on how to minimize the risks derived from not being able to provide the health care required by patients with pathologies different from those produced by SARS-COV2, on how to guarantee healthcare activity and the safety of professionals, and the new challenges in the organization of a thoracic surgery service.
