From high volume to “zero” proctology: Italian experience in the COVID era

PURPOSE: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic hit Italy early and strongly, challenging the whole health care system. Proctological patients and surgeons are experiencing a previously unseen change in care with unknown repercussion. Here we discuss the proctological experience of 4 Italian hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Following remote brainstorming, the authors summarised their experience in managing proctological patients during the COVID-19 pandemics and put forward some practical observations to further investigate. RESULTS: The 4 hospitals shifted from a high-volume proctological activity to almost “zero” visits and surgery. Every patient accessing the hospital must respect a specific COVID-19 protocol. Proctological patients can be stratified based on presentation and management considerations into (1) neoplastic patients, the only allowed to be surgically treated, (2) the ones requiring urgent care, operated only in highly selected cases and (3) the stable, already known patients, managed remotely. Changes in the clinical management of the proctological disease are presented together with some considerations to be explored. CONCLUSIONS: In the absence of scientific evidence, these practical considerations may be valuable to proctological surgeons starting to face the COVID-19 pandemics. Beside the more clinical considerations, this crisis produced unexpected consequences such as an improvement of the therapeutic alliance and a shift towards telemedicine that may be worth exploring also in the post-COVID-19 era.