Postoperative Outcomes of Patients Undergoing Laparoscopic Surgeries during COVID-19 Pandemic Era

A novel human coronavirus (COVID-19) was reported in China at the beginning of 2020 and then emerged as a pandemic. Due to this pandemic, surgical practices changed worldwide. First, postponing elective surgeries to the end of pandemic was suggested. Therefore, conducting safe surgeries became a critical concern. This is a multicenter prospective study. The data of 85 patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery in this pandemic era were recorded to evaluate their postoperative outcomes. Among all patients with mean age of 43.7±15.6 and mean surgical duration of 94.6 minutes, none of them showed any complication or any COVID-19 related symptoms after surgery or in follow up time. The mean hospital stay was 3.5 days. There was no increased risk of postoperative complications and COVID-19 infection for patients undergoing various types of laparoscopic surgery in this study and laparoscopy was safe for the patients.