Abstract
BackgroundThe SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has reached Poland on March 4th, 2020 and undoubtedly affected all areas of life and medical care, including bariatric care. The study was planned to identify the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on bariatric care in Poland.MethodsThe online survey was designed and distributed to bariatric surgeons. The questionnaire was divided into three parts: demographic characteristics of participants and their bariatric centers, examining the impact of the pandemic on the bariatric care and last part with questions about planned care after the pandemic.Results49 surgeons participated in the survey. 27 (55%) participants worked in hospitals transformed into COVID-dedicated units. Only 9 (18%) respondents declared uninterrupted bariatric surgery during a pandemic. 91% of surgeons declared continuation of bariatric care with telemedicine techniques. All participants declared a high willingness to resume bariatric surgery after the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and responded that bariatric procedures should resume immediately when World Health Organisation (WHO) announces the end of a pandemic regardless of oncological treatment. 90% of respondents believe that the pandemic will not affect the safety of bariatric procedures in the future.ConclusionsAccess to bariatric care during the pandemic is limited and redirected to telemedicine. Surgeons are ready to resume bariatric operations immediately after the pandemic, but its end is difficult to determine. In surgeons’ opinion pandemic will not affect the safety of bariatric surgery in the future. The extended waiting list and financial aspects will be the main issues after the pandemic.
Highlights
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has reached Poland on March 4th, 2020 and undoubtedly affected all areas of life and medical care, including bariatric care
*Correspondence: tomasz.stefura@gmail.com 1 2nd Department of General Surgery, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Jakubowskiego 2 st., 30‐688 Krakow, Poland Full list of author information is available at the end of the article In December 2019, China became the center of an outbreak of pneumonia caused by a new pathogen named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) [2]
Hospitals Most of the participants worked in academic hospitals—22 (45%), 18 (37%) worked in district/city hospitals and 9 (18%) in state departments. (55%) of participants worked in hospitals transformed into COVID-dedicated units. (57%) participants declared that patients with SARS-CoV-2 were treated in their hospitals
Summary
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has reached Poland on March 4th, 2020 and undoubtedly affected all areas of life and medical care, including bariatric care. The study was planned to identify the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on bariatric care in Poland. In December 2019, China became the center of an outbreak of pneumonia caused by a new pathogen named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) [2]. The virus has reached Poland on March 4th, 2020, causing over 9,000 infections and over 350 deaths (Polish Ministry of Health, April 19th, 2020). Obesity plays an important role in the development of a severe course of SARS-COV-2 infection and is considered as a very strong single risk factor for death [4].
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