Background Whether patients with gastrointestinal malignancies who need timely surgery should postpone timely surgery for a long time after being infected with COVID-19 remains controversial.
Objective To evaluate the safety of surgical resection of malignant gastrointestinal tumors in patients with symptoms of COVID-19 within 30 days after infection.
Methods The clinical data and prognosis of patients with malignant gastrointestinal tumors who underwent surgery in the Senior Department of General Surgery, the First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital from November 1, 2022 to January 16, 2023, were collected and analyzed retrospectively. The incidence and severity of complications between the two groups were compared.
Results There were 81 patients in the infection group and 131 patients in the control group, and there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in age, sex, body mass index (BMI), surgical methods, operative time, blood loss, length of postoperative hospital stay, number of harvested lymph nodes, or vaccination status (all P＞0.05). And no significant differences were found in complication probability (14.8% 12/81 vs 16.8% 22/131, P=0.703) and complication severity (Clavien‒Dindo classification: grade Ⅰ, grade Ⅱ, grade Ⅲa and grade Ⅲb) (2.5%, 9.9%, 4.9% and 2.5% vs 3.8%, 9.9%, 7.6%, and 0.8%, P=0.721) between the two groups.
Conclusion The surgical resection of malignant gastrointestinal tumors in patients with symptoms of COVID-19 within 30 days after infection is safe.
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