As the novel coronavirus spread, hospitals worldwide scaled back medical procedures, including life-saving heart surgery. Two recent articles examine how cardiac surgery centres have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, and how they can resume operations in this new environment. These are written by Dr Marc Ruel, M Pitfield of the University of Ottawa and colleagues. 📣 Express Explained is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@ieexplained) and stay updated with the latest In the first article, published in Circulation, Dr Ruel and his co-authors found that 60 cardiac surgery centres in 19 countries had reduced cardiac surgeries by an average of 50 to 75% in response to the pandemic. The second article, published in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, contains 12 recommendations developed by a consortium of experts in 19 countries. The recommendations cover topics such as: prioritising surgeries; dealing with cardiac patients who test positive for COVID-19; and patient discharge and follow-up protocols. The two articles were a joint effort by uOttawa, Cornell University and Cedars Sinai. Source: University of Ottawa
