Cardiac surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic had several specific as well as general implications on cardiac surgery. Acute respiratory distress made extracorporeal oxygenation necessary in asignificant number of patients and accordingly many patients were treated in anesthesiological and even more in cardiac surgical intensive care units, which left only alimited number of beds in the intensive care units available for elective surgery cases. Moreover, the necessary availability of intensive care beds for severely diseased COVID-19 patients in general posed afurther limit, as did the relevant number of diseased personnel. Specific emergency plans were developed for many heart surgery units, limiting the number of elective cases. Increasing waiting lists were of course stressful for numerous elective-surgery patients and the decreased number of heart operations also meant afinancial burden for many units.