ReviewAnnals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England2020
Emergency surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic: what you need to know for practice.
Review in Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04440150 (Preoperative Immature Granulocyte Count and Percentage for Complicated and Uncomplicated Appendisitis), which is not on this map. Cited by 127 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Preoperative Immature Granulocyte Count and Percentage for Complicated and Uncomplicated Appendisitis
Who cites it
127 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 277 citations in OpenAlex.
- Comparison of the outcomes of testicular torsion among children presenting during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic versus the pre-pandemic period: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of pediatric urology · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Laparoscopic Surgery and the debate on its safety during COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review of recommendations.The surgeon : journal of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of Edinburgh and Ireland · 2021Pooled it
- The management of surgical patients in the emergency setting during COVID-19 pandemic: the WSES position paper.World journal of emergency surgery : WJES · 2021Guideline
- A retrospective multicentre review of the efficiency of the novel coronavirus emergency operating theatre.Singapore medical journal · 2026Article
- Article
- Impact of COVID-19 on urgent gastrointestinal surgery outcomes: increased mortality in 2020.World journal of emergency surgery : WJES · 2025Article
- Indications and clinical outcomes of percutaneous cholecystostomies in acute cholecystitis: a study from Qatar.BMC surgery · 2025Article
- The COVID-19 pandemic and clinical characteristics of colorectal cancer: a multicenter retrospective study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- COVID-19 infection is a significant risk factor for death in patients presenting with acute cholecystitis: a secondary analysis of the ChoCO-W cohort study.World journal of emergency surgery : WJES · 2025Review
- EVALUATION OF A DECADE OF ONCOLOGICAL-ORTHOPEDIC PROCEDURES IN BRAZIL (2015-2024) AND THE IMPACT OF COVID-19.Acta ortopedica brasileira · 2025Article
- Trends in surgery and anesthesia practices during the COVID-19 pandemic: a nationwide analysis from South Korea's Health Insurance Database.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Article
- The Advancement of Appendicitis in Children in the Pre-Pandemic and the Pandemic Year.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Postponement of total knee arthroplasties due to pandemic causes significant deterioration on patients' preoperative knee and quality of life scores.Journal of orthopaedics · 2024Article
- Unchanged Faces of Acute Appendicitis: Exploring Presentation and Treatment Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic.Cureus · 2024Article
- The lived experiences of operating room nurses from the surgery on COVID-19 patients: a phenomenological study.Perioperative medicine (London, England) · 2024Article
- The Operating Room management for emergency Surgical Activity (ORSA) study: a WSES international survey.Updates in surgery · 2024Article
- Appendicolith appendicitis: should we be operating sooner? A retrospective cohort study.Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England · 2024Article
- Emergency laparotomy for peritonitis in the elderly: A Multicentre observational study of outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa.African journal of emergency medicine : Revue africaine de la medecine d'urgence · 2023Article
67 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on byCommentary.2020
Authors and funding
13 authors at 11 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionSeveral articles have been published about the reorganisation of surgical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic but few, if any, have focused on the impact that this has had on emergency and trauma surgery. Our aim was to review the most current data on COVID-19 to provide essential suggestions on how to manage the acute abdomen during the pandemic.
methodsA systematic review was conducted of the most relevant English language articles on COVID-19 and surgery published between 15 December 2019 and 30 March 2020.
findingsAccess to the operating theatre is almost exclusively restricted to emergencies and oncological procedures. The use of laparoscopy in COVID-19 positive patients should be cautiously considered. The main risk lies in the presence of the virus in the pneumoperitoneum: the aerosol released in the operating theatre could contaminate both staff and the environment.
conclusionsDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, all efforts should be deployed in order to evaluate the feasibility of postponing surgery until the patient is no longer considered potentially infectious or at risk of perioperative complications. If surgery is deemed necessary, the emergency surgeon must minimise the risk of exposure to the virus by involving a minimal number of healthcare staff and shortening the occupation of the operating theatre. In case of a lack of security measures to enable safe laparoscopy, open surgery should be considered.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.