Robotic Surgery can be Safely Performed for Patients and Healthcare Workers During COVID‐19 Pandemic

xlomafota13 shared this article with you from Inoreader Robotic Surgery can be Safely Performed for Patients and Healthcare Workers During COVID‐19 Pandemic Via The International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery Abstract Objectives To investigate the safety of robotic surgery during COVID-19 pandemic concerning new-acquired COVID-19 infections for patients and healthcare workers. Patients We performed a retrospective single-centre cohort study of patients undergoing robotic surgery in initial period of COVID-19 pandemic. Patients and Healthcare workers COVID-19 infection status was assessed by structured telephone follow-up and/or repeated nasopharyngeal swabs. Results After 61 robotic surgeries (93,5% cancer surgery), 1 patient (1.6%) had COVID-19 infection. 60 healthcare workers cumulatively exposed to 1,187 hours of robotic surgery had no infection. One patient with postoperative proof of SARS-CoV-2 had complete recovery. After this potentially contagious robotic surgery, 8 healthcare workers had no COVID-19 infection after follow-up with each 3 nasopharyngeal swabs. Conclusions Early clinical experience of robotic surgery during COVID-19 pandemic shows that robotic surgery can be safely performed for patients and healthcare workers. Despite our results we recommend elective surgery only for verified COVID-19 negative patients. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.