Cardiac surgery on patients with COVID‐19: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

INTRODUCTION: The COVID‐19 pandemic has had a significant impact on global surgery. In particular, deleterious effects of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection on the heart and cardiovascular system have been described. To inform surgical patients, we performed a systematic review and meta‐analysis aiming to characterize outcomes of COVID‐19 positive patients undergoing cardiac surgery. METHODS: The study protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42021228533) and conformed with PRISMA 2020 and MOOSE guidelines. PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE and Web of Science were searched between 1 January 2019 to 24 February 2022 for studies reporting outcomes on COVID‐19 positive patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Study screening, data extraction and risk of bias assessment were conducted in duplicate. Meta‐analysis was conducted using a random‐effects model where at least two studies had sufficient data for that variable. RESULTS: Searches identified 4223 articles of which 18 studies were included with a total 44 patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Within these studies, 12 (66.7%) reported populations undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, three (16.7%) aortic valve replacements (AVR) and three (16.7%) aortic dissection repairs. Overall mean postoperative length of ICU stay was 3.39 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.38, 6.39) and mean postoperative length of hospital stay was 17.88 (95% CI: 14.57, 21.19). CONCLUSION: This systematic review and meta‐analysis investigated studies of limited quality which characterized cardiac surgery in COVID‐19 positive patients and demonstrates that these patients have poor outcomes. Further issues to be explored are effects of COVID‐19 on decision‐making in cardiac surgery, and effects of COVID‐19 on the cardiovascular system at a cellular level.