Emergency Operation in Dr Wahidin Sudirohusodo and Hasanuddin University Hospital during the COVID-19 Pandemic

BACKGROUND: In December 2019, the world was shocked by a respiratory infectious disease caused by the novel coronavirus which was later referred to as COVID-19. This virus is transmitted from human to human very quickly through droplets, aerosols, and direct contact with COVID-19 patients. One of the health services suspected of playing a role in the spread of this virus is surgery. Surgical procedures involve much medical personnel and direct contact with patients causes surgery to be considered. In addition, surgery is also prone to causing nosocomial infections because generally post-operative patients have an increased inflammatory process and decreased immune response. In contrast to elective surgery, emergency surgery has a higher risk of post-operative morbidity and mortality than elective surgery because of the limited time to prepare and assess the patient.
AIM: To find out the number of positive cases of COVID-19 after emergency surgery at our institution.
METHODS: The type of research conducted is descriptive where this study uses secondary data in the form of medical records of post-operative emergency patients who meet the inclusion and exclusion criteria.
RESULTS: A total of 741 medical records were obtained, with 691 of them being COVID-19 negative and 50 being COVID-19 positive.
CONCLUSION: We found 93.3% of negative post-operative COVID-19 cases and 6.7% of positive post-operative COVID-19 cases in patients underwent emergency surgery procedures.