Impact of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on bariatric care in Poland: results of national survey
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Impact of SARS‑CoV‑2 pandemic on bariatric care in Poland: results of national survey Piotr Major1, Tomasz Stefura1* , Michał Wysocki1, Piotr Małczak1, Anna Rzepa1, Monika Proczko‑Stepaniak2, Jacek Szeliga3 and Michał Pędziwiatr1
Abstract Background: 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. Methods: The 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 pan‑ demic on the bariatric care and last part with questions about planned care after the pandemic. Results: 49 surgeons participated in the survey. 27 (55%) participants worked in hospitals transformed into COVIDdedicated 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. Conclusions: Access 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. Keywords: Bariatric surgery, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Pandemic Background The demand for bariatric surgery in Poland is growing annually, despite a constant increase in the number of conducted surgeries. Currently, in Poland more than 30 surgical centers perform bariatric procedures, adding up to around 5000 procedures throughout the country annually [1].
*Correspondence: [email protected] 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]. On March 11th, 2020 World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus disease (COVID-19) global pandemic [3]. The virus has also 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 inf
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