Rapid Scoping Review of Laparoscopic Surgery Guidelines During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Appraisal Using a Simple Quality Appraisal Tool “EMERGE”

The theoretical danger of virus transmission during laparoscopic surgery (LS) via surgical smoke and laparoscopy gas has led to the formulation of many guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic. This rapid scoping review of these guidelines was done to assess the quality of their evidence and appraise them for their impact on surgical services from the global south. A simple quality appraisal tool was constructed which can be used to evaluate rapidly emerging guidelines for evidence as well as for the needs of the global south. This rapid scoping review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews protocol. Electronic databases were searched with predefined strategy and retrieved papers were screened according to relevant criteria. A simple objective tool to assess the quality of rapidly emerging guidelines including evidence, methodology, ease, resource optimization, geography, and the economy was constructed. Twenty studies met the inclusion criteria. None of the guidelines qualified to be evidence-based clinical practice guidelines as the level of evidence was uniformly rated “low”. A newly constructed tool showed good validation, reliability, and internal consistency. This rapid scoping review found two major research gaps: lack of systematic review of evidence during their development and insufficient weightage of their impact on surgical services from the global south. These significant issues were addressed by constructing a simple and more representative tool for evaluating rapidly emerging guidelines which also gives the rightful importance of their impact on surgical services from the global south.