Management and Follow-up of Pediatric Surgical Coronavirus Disease 2019 Emergencies

The review excluded COVID-19-positive children requiring elective surgeries, for whom it was postponed by at least 3 months.Children with semi-elective pathologies (like pelviureteric junction obstruction, undescended testis, etc.), wherein surgery was done after 2 weeks following a COVID-19-negative report were also excluded.The study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC-316/2021).Data were tabulated with continuous variables reported as mean and standard deviation (SD) for normally distributed variables or as median and interquartile range for those not normally distributed.Categorical variables were reported using numbers and percentages. Results A total of 70 children underwent emergency surgical procedures and interventions during this 1-year period (Table 1). Average age IntRoductIonThe outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11 th March 2020. 1 This resulted in various modifications in the management of surgical patients, particularly aimed at decreasing aerosol generation and curtailing the inflammatory cascade.Reports on the management of COVID-19-infected pediatric surgical patients are few.Here, we present our experience in treating COVID-19 pediatric surgical emergencies (suspect and positive), highlighting the outcomes and the follow-up. MateRIals a n d MethodsThis is an observational study of children admitted for pediatric surgical services in a tertiary care hospital in India during the COVID-19 pandemic, from April 2020 to April 2021.The inclusion criteria for this study were children of age-group 0-18 years who required surgical intervention and who were COVID-19 rapid antigen positive or real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) positive.The data was sourced from admission records, discharge summaries, and outpatient records.Where follow-up in person was not feasible, telephonic communication was opted for.Demographics, primary diagnosis, surgery/intervention, COVID-19 test results (rapid antigen test/reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction, rapid antigen test (RAT)/(RT-PCR), inflammatory markers ferritin, C-reactive protein (CRP), D-dimer, days of hospital stay, complications, and follow-up were recorded.