Coronavirus-infected patients needing emergency surgery: Anesthesia standards

Physicians describe the standardized procedure of surgical anesthesia for patients with COVID-19 infection requiring emergency surgery to minimize the risk of virus spread and reduce lung injury in a Letter to the Editor published in Surgical Infections.

Xianjie Wen and Yiqun Li, the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, and the Second People's Hospital of Foshan City, China, coauthored the letter entitled "Anesthesia Procedure of Emergency Operation for Patients with Suspected or Confirmed COVID-19." The authors discuss the need for a negative pressure operating room, protection for the anesthesiologists, and special requirements for the anesthetic equipment, appliances, and drugs used. They describe the induction of anesthesia and the mechanical ventilation strategy during anesthesia maintenance to reduce ventilator-related lung injury.

"Avoiding airborne droplets from infected patients that are being ventilated is important to avoid transmission of these infections to OR personnel and other patients receiving care in the OR," says Surgical Infections Editor-in-Chief Donald E. Fry, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL.