Previously submitted to: JMIRx Med (no longer under consideration since Nov 27, 2023)
Date Submitted: Mar 6, 2022
Open Peer Review Period: Mar 6, 2022 - May 1, 2022
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
NOTE: This is an unreviewed Preprint
Warning: This is a unreviewed preprint (What is a preprint?). Readers are warned that the document has not been peer-reviewed by expert/patient reviewers or an academic editor, may contain misleading claims, and is likely to undergo changes before final publication, if accepted, or may have been rejected/withdrawn (a note "no longer under consideration" will appear above).
Peer review me: Readers with interest and expertise are encouraged to sign up as peer-reviewer, if the paper is within an open peer-review period (in this case, a "Peer Review Me" button to sign up as reviewer is displayed above). All preprints currently open for review are listed here. Outside of the formal open peer-review period we encourage you to tweet about the preprint.
Citation: Please cite this preprint only for review purposes or for grant applications and CVs (if you are the author).
Final version: If our system detects a final peer-reviewed "version of record" (VoR) published in any journal, a link to that VoR will appear below. Readers are then encourage to cite the VoR instead of this preprint.
Settings: If you are the author, you can login and change the preprint display settings, but the preprint URL/DOI is supposed to be stable and citable, so it should not be removed once posted.
Submit: To post your own preprint, simply submit to any JMIR journal, and choose the appropriate settings to expose your submitted version as preprint.
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Safety and Feasibility of Laparoscopic Surgeries during Covid-19 Pandemic- A Review
ABSTRACT
Background:
During the Covid19 pandemic, the potential spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus during surgeries, especially in laparoscopic surgeries, is a key concern. Surgical smoke released during laparoscopic surgeries may cause viral transmission. Therefore, the risk and benefits of viral transmission during laparoscopic surgery needs to be carefully evaluated. For the safety of healthcare professionals are adapted from the previous pandemics/epidemics, the preventive measures especially applicable to laparoscopic surgeries include care during CO2 insufflation/desufflation, minimal use of energy sources, personal protection measures are recommended.
Objective:
The aim of this article is to review the contemporary literature pertaining to the risk of conducting laparoscopic surgeries during the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, we summarize the relevant safety protocols for the patients, surgical team, anesthetists, and the operation room staff.
Methods:
A systematic literature search was performed using the key words: Covid-19 laparoscopy, Surgical smoke, Covid safety in operation rooms, Laparoscopic surgeries and Covid safety, prevention, Aerosol transmission, Laparoscopic surgery, Covid-19’ Search articles were considered from the aims of the articles, nature, safety protocols, and risk mentioned in the literature.
Results:
Although the initial guidelines advocated by various organizations stated that Laparoscopy generally should not be used as it is considered to carry some risks of aerosol-type formation and infection and considerable caution is advised. Though some reports have suggested the use of Laparoscopy in selected cases where clinical benefit to the patient substantially exceeds the risk of potential viral transmission to the surgical team.
Conclusions:
Based on this review of the current scientific knowledge, no scientific evidence was found to support the use of open surgery over laparoscopy to reduce viral transmission of COVID-19 if the advocated Covid-19 guidelines are followed strictly; however, there is still much to discover about the viral transmission.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.