The requirement for surgery and subsequent 30-day mortality in patients with COVID-19

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had profound effects on the provision of surgical care. The potential perioperative mortality associated with surgical procedures in patients with COVID-19 has been estimated at 20%, but the data come from jurisdictions that experienced very high surges of COVID-19 patients. A rapid assessment of the types of surgical care for patients with COVID-19 in Ontario was carried out using administrative data, and we found that during the initial wave in the spring of 2020, surgical interventions were required in 0.6% of patients with COVID-19, and mortality was higher (20%) in patients who underwent surgery in the 2 weeks before or after a positive nasopharygeal swab than in those who had surgery more than 2 weeks after COVID-19 was diagnosed.