The Impact of COVID-19 and Urgency for Patients Undergoing Elective Surgery

Mykito Payam, Department of Surgery, University of Mpumalanga, Mbombela, South Africa, Email: Mykitop123@gmail.com

Received: 20-Jan-2023, Manuscript No. EJMACES-23-92024; Editor assigned: 23-Jan-2023, Pre QC No. EJMACES-23-92024 (PQ); Reviewed: 07-Feb-2023, QC No. EJMACES-23-92024; Revised: 15-Feb-2023, Manuscript No. EJMACES-23-92024 (R); Published: 22-Feb-2023

Description

Elective surgery, often known as elective treatment, refers to surgery that is planned ahead of time and is not related to a medical emergency. Surgery that is necessary to maintain the patient’s life but does not have to be done right away is referred to as semi-elective surgery.

In contrast, an emergency surgery is one that must be carried out without delay; the patient has no other option but to undergo immediate surgery if permanent disability or death is to be avoided. Urgent surgeries can wait until the patient is medically stable, but they typically need to be completed within two days.

Recent research indicates that when hospitals have the capacity and resources, elective surgery is safe for patients in terms of COVID-19 transmission. For patients that have an on-going COVID-19 infection, it is the recommendation of the AAOS that elective surgery is rescheduled.

Urgency

Because of an urgent medical issue, this kind of surgery is performed. Even life is at risk due to the disease. Examples include trauma and acute appendicitis. Surgeons use the term “semi-elective surgery” to describe procedures that are needed to address a condition that is getting worse but has not yet reached the level of a true emergency.

Semi-elective surgical issues in a patient with many medical illnesses may be delayed until urgent issues have been resolved and the patient is in a stable medical condition. For instance, pregnant women often wait until after giving birth to undergo any elective or semi-elective operations. In some cases, a surgery that is urgently needed will be temporarily postponed to allow for the treatment of even more critical issues. In some circumstances, life-saving resuscitation procedures may be carried out concurrently with emergency surgery.

Depending on the patient’s needs, many surgeries can be done as either elective or emergency procedures. The gallbladder may need to be removed right away by emergency surgery if the illness suddenly gets worse, but this procedure is more frequently scheduled in advance. Although an appendectomy is regarded as emergency surgery, the patient may have more time before the appendix runs the danger of rupturing or the infection spreads, depending on how quickly the diagnosis was discovered. In some emergency situations, including those involving a heart attack or stroke, surgery may or may not be required.

Types

Most medically required procedures are elective, meaning they are planned at a time that works for the surgeon, hospital, and patient. They include inguinal hernia repair, cataract surgery, breast cancer mastectomy, and living kidney donation.

All elective operations are those that are carried out for reasons other than medical necessity. This covers cosmetic procedures that try to improve a patient’s physical appearance, such as facelifts, breast implants, liposuction, and breast reduction. A patient may choose to get LASIK surgery, weighing the risks against expected improvements in quality of life. The most popular elective procedure in the US right now is LASIK.

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