Vaccinate surgery patients on priority to cut risks

Vadodara: An estimated 58,687 Covid-19 related deaths can be prevented globally if pre-operative vaccination is administered on patients one week prior to their elective surgery. This will reduce the 30-day morbidity and mortality, reveals an international study on surgery conducted by the University of Birmingham and funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

World’s largest-ever Covid surgical collaborative international team of researchers led by experts at Birmingham published its findings on Wednesday in BJS – the British Journal of Surgery and the European Journal of Surgery.

“As we are experiencing our second wave of Covid-19 and have now made vaccines available, it will make sense for surgeons to insist on vaccination for elective surgery patients. This will decrease morbidity and lead to safe surgery,” said Dr Vishal Bhende, paediatric cardiac surgeon at Shree Krishna Hospital (SKH), Karamsad.

Bhende, along with onco surgeon Dr Raghunandan, and a team of six junior doctors from SKH — Dr Hardil Majmudar, Dr Tanishq Sharma, Dr Shivang Amin, Dr Saptak Mankad, Sohilkhan Pathan, Rohit Kumar — were part of this global study. Study was carried out with collaborative efforts of 56 hospitals of India and 1,667 hospitals of 116 countries including Australia, Brazil, China, India, UAE, the UK and USA.

As per the study, between 0.6% and 1.6% patients develop Covid infection after elective surgery. This particularly applies to those over 70 and those undergoing surgery for cancer.
Based on the high risks surgical patients face, scientists have calculated that vaccination is more likely to prevent Covid-19 related deaths than vaccines given to general population. “This could be particularly important for low and middle-income countries where mitigation measures such as nasal swab screening and Covid-free surgical pathways are unlikely to be universally implemented,” the study states.

“Vaccination is also likely to decrease post-operative pulmonary complications,” it states. “Restarting elective surgery is a global priority. Over 15,000 surgeons and anaesthetists from 116 countries contributed to this study, making it the largest ever scientific collaboration. It is crucial that policy makers use the data we have collected. Covid vaccination should be prioritised for surgery patients ahead of general population,” said co-lead author Dr Dmitri Nepogodiev from University of Birmingham.