Trends regarding the profile of cardiac surgery patients during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in Greece

Abstract

Humanity faces one of the greatest healthcare challenges ever, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to WHO’s weekly operational report, published on 16th February 2021, we have 110,384,747 confirmed cases and 2,446,008 deaths globally (https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novelcoronavirus-2019/situation-reports). SARS-CoV-2 has been highly infectious, and it did not take long to cross the borders of China and soon become a global health threat with implications of unpredictable magnitude[1]. Noticeably, the rate of new infections is still high, with more than 2.7 million new cases per week, and there is a great concern regarding public health events associated with SARS-CoV-2 variants. Concerning cardiac surgery units, there was a clear impact on the daily routine in different ways[2-5]. Many changes took place regarding admission procedures, aggressive infection mitigation strategies in the operating room and during surgical recovery, intensive care guidelines and restrictions. Also, a necessity rose to postpone elective cardiac surgeries, to manage healthcare workers’ resources differently, to deal with the increased risk of infection for both patients and health professionals, along with the exaggerated skepticism among patients, affecting their willingness to undergo a cardiac surgery. In an international survey during the first wave of the pandemic, with the participation of more than 600 cardiac surgeons from America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, a median reduction in the volume of cardiac surgery cases was 50% to 75%, as most centers postponed elective cases and more than one-third of the centers reported more than 50% reductions in intensive care capacity[6]. This led to modifications in policies and guidelines regarding cardiac surgery priority to confront the pandemic requirements and scarce resources. However, these recommendations should be considered on case-by-case basis with a clear need for regular updates[7-9]. The Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center (OCSC) is a tertiary hospital focused on the treatment of cardiac surgery and cardiology patients. The core period of the first wave of the Trends regarding the profile of cardiac surgery patients during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in Greece