Vascular Surgeon Discomfort in a Pandemic Setting

During coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, which is responsible of more than 230,000 confirmed cases and 34,000 deaths in Italy at the time of June 9,1 surgical units have been stressed to maintain the service for urgent patients, irrespective of COVID-19 infection. In this time, all the patients presenting with vascular emergency are screened for COVID-19 with a pharyngeal swab and considered as positive until further investigations and diagnosis. However, those patients who require urgent surgical vascular therapy are managed as COVID-19 positive and, consequently, operating room staff have to wear personal protective equipment to minimize infection.
Source: Annals of Vascular Surgery - Category: Surgery Authors: Tags: Correspondence Source Type: research