The effect of previous SARS-Cov-2 infection positivity on Gynecological Surgery: A Tertiary Hospital Experience

Abstract

Objective: The study aimed to investigate whether a history of preoperative SARS-CoV-2 infection differs in terms of peroperative complications and prognosis in patients who had undergone gynecological surgery in the last one year compared to patients who did not. Materials and Methods: This retrospective case-control study included 632 patients who underwent laparotomic, laparoscopic, urogynecological and oncological surgeries for various indications between July 2020 and July 2021. The patients were divided into two groups according to positive and negative SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR (Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction) test results performed preoperatively. The two groups were compared in terms of demographic characteristics, the operation performed, the type of anesthesia applied during the operations, the status of blood transfusion, operation and hospitalization times, and intraoperative and postoperative complications. Results: While 5.5% (n=35) of the patients had positive SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test results in the preoperative period (group 1), 94.5% (n=597) had negative SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test results preoperatively. The following parameters, including age, body mass index (BMI), gravida, parity, number of smokers, and number of patients with the comorbid disease, were similar between the two groups. Moreover, no difference was detected in terms of mean hospitalization time, mean operative time, and the number of patients with intraoperative-postoperative complications between the two groups. However, there was a significant difference between the groups in terms of blood product transfusion requirement [0 patients (0%) vs. 55 patients (9.2%) (p=0.05)]. Conclusion: History of SARS-CoV-2 infection in gynecological surgery does not affect intraoperative and postoperative complications except blood product transfusion requirement.