Doctors warn of the drastic drop in cardiac surgeries observed in the United States in 2020 and early 2021. A direct consequence of the Covid-19 epidemic.
- Compared to 2019, heart surgery operations decreased by 53% in 2020 in the United States due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Postponing heart operations increases the risk of morbidity and mortality, the study authors believe.
From the arrival of Covid-19, doctors were worried about collateral damage on other serious illnesses, in particular due to saturated hospital services and cancellations of consultations. A new American study confirms this fear: researchers have indeed recorded a significant decrease in heart surgery since the start of the pandemic.
Presented during the 57th Annual Conference of the Society of Thoracic Surgeonsthis research is based on data from the STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database (ACSD), the world’s leading registry of clinical outcomes of cardiac surgery in adults. The cases studied are included over a period from January 1, 2018 to June 30, 2020 and from February 1, 2020 to January 1, 2021.
In total, the researchers looked at data from 717,103 adult heart surgery patients and more than 20 million patients with Covid-19, to determine how the pandemic has affected adult heart surgery in the United States (at national and regional level).
53% fewer heart surgeries than in 2019
Conclusion: Heart surgery operations are down 53% nationwide compared to 2019.”The pandemic has changed the world as we know it, causing heart surgery volumes to drop dramatically in adults and worsening patient outcomes“comments Dr Nuygen, of the University of California, who led the research.
Although the data did not directly address the cause of the increased mortality, many surgeons say they are currently limiting themselves to operating only coronary bypass cases, considered the most urgent procedures.
The abrupt cessation of surgery in mid-March 2020 would have had, according to the study, significant implications whose negative effects related to canceled and postponed procedures on patient health outcomes are now beginning to be felt. “We have clearly demonstrated that if you have heart surgery while you have Covid-19, you are at increased risk of morbidity and mortality.“, said Dr. Nguyen.
According to Dr. Nguyen, this study is only the first of a long series of research. The authors of the publication soon plan to examine trends and outcomes of Covid patients compared to those who have not contracted the virus, as well as dig deeper into the effect of the pandemic on specific adult cardiac procedures, such as aortic dissections.
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