Surgical Aid to Patients with Hepatopancreatobiliary Situations in Precovid Period and under Persistent Relapse of New Coronavirus Infection SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

Introduction. The third wave of the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) pandemic warrants total mobilisation of healthcare and social resources. In this respect, a pressing issue remains the provision of routine and emergency surgical care in patients with hepatopancreatobiliary diseases.Materials and methods. A retrospective analysis of the surgical outcomes in 5,040 hepatopancreatobiliary patients was carried out; this accounted for 51.1 % of the total abdominal surgeries.Results and discussion. Biliary lithiasis and its complications — choledocholithiasis with obstructive jaundice and residual choledocholithiasis — (54.4 %) as well as acute calculous cholecystitis (18.7 %) were operated most frequently. A sharp decrease over all hepatopancreatobiliary nosologies was registered for the surgical interventions in first pandemic year 2020. Thus, the median annual number of operations for biliary lithiasis and its complications was 550 (482–592 year-range) in the precovid period, while dropping to only 321 at the onset of pandemic (p <0.05). A first sixmonth survey of year 2021 revealed a growth of surgical activity for all hepatopancreatobiliary nosologies.Conclusion. Hepatopancreatobiliary operations prevail (54.4 % cases) in the total structure of level 3 abdominal surgical interventions. A high annual rate of surgical operations over nearly all hepatopancreatobiliary nosologies was interrupted in the first year of the new coronavirus infection outbreak. Meanwhile, the first half of 2021 showed a clear tend towards restoring the precovid statistical indicators, despite the stressful conditions of persistently relapsing COVID-19 that surgical facilities had faced.