Pulmonary complications and mortality among COVID-19 patients undergoing a surgery: a multicenter cohort study

Abstract

Background Managing COVID-19-positive patients requiring surgery is complex due to perceived heightened perioperative risks. However, Canadian data in this context remains scarce. To address this gap, we conducted a multicenter cohort study in the province of Québec, the Canadian province most affected during the initial waves of the pandemic, to comprehensively assess the impact of COVID-19 symptoms, and recovery time, on postoperative outcomes in surgical patients. Methods We included adult surgical patients with either active COVID-19 at time of surgery or those who had recovered from the disease, from March 13, 2020, to April 30, 2021. We evaluated the association between symptoms or recovery time and postoperative pulmonary complications and hospital mortality using multivariable logistic regression and Cox models. Results We included 105 patients with an active infection (47 were symptomatic and 58 were asymptomatic) and 206 who had healed from COVID-19 in seven hospitals. Among patients with an active infection, those who were symptomatic had a higher risk of pulmonary complications (odds ratio = 3.19; 95% CI, from 1.12 to 9.68; p = 0.03) and hospital mortality (hazard ratio = 3.67; 95% CI, from 1.19 to 11.32; p = 0.02). We did not observe any significant effect of the duration of recovery prior to surgery on patients who had healed from their infection. Their postoperative outcomes were also similar to those observed in asymptomatic patients. Interpretation Symptomatic status should be considered in the decision to proceed with surgery in COVID-19-positive patients. Our results may help optimize surgical care in this patient population. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04458337, Registration Date: July 7, 2020.