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The impact of SARS-Cov-2 Omicron infection on short-term outcomes after elective surgery in patients with gastrointestinal cancer

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Abstract

With the emergence of novel variants, Omicron variant caused a different clinical picture than the previous variants and little evidence was reported regarding perioperative outcomes after Omicron variants. The aim of the study was to evaluate the postoperative outcomes of gastrointestinal cancer patients following Omicron variants infection and also to determine the timing of surgery after infection recovery. A total of 124 patients who underwent gastrointestinal cancer surgery with prior SARS-CoV-2 infection between December 2022 and February 2023 were retrospectively reviewed. 174 cases underwent the same operation during December 2018 and February 2019 as control group. SARS-CoV-2-infected patients were further categorized into three groups based on infected time (1–3 weeks; 4–6 weeks; and ≥ 7 weeks). 90.3% of SARS-CoV-2-infected patients had mild symptoms. The COVID-19 vaccination rate was 71.0%, with a full vaccination rate of 48.4%. There were no significant differences in 30-day morbidity and mortality. There was also no significant difference in pulmonary complications, cardiovascular complications, and surgical complications between the three different diagnosis time groups. In conclusion, reducing waiting time for elective surgery was safe for gastrointestinal cancer patients in the context of an increased transmissibility and milder illness severity with Omicron variant.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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This research received no funding.

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Author notes

  1. Di Zhang and Yao Yang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Shanghai East Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

    Di Zhang, Yao Yang, Ren-hao Hu, Xi-mao Cui, Chi-ye Ma, Biao Yuan, Dong-yi Yan, Tao Du, Chun Song, Xiao-hua Jiang & Shun Zhang

Authors
  1. Di Zhang
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  2. Yao Yang
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  3. Ren-hao Hu
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  4. Xi-mao Cui
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Contributions

D.Z, Y.Y, R,H, X.C, C.M, T.D, B.Y, and D.Y collected data. S.Z. wrote the manuscript draft. X.J. aided in manuscript writing and finalized the manuscript. C.S, S.Z. and X.J. discussed the review content and critically reviewed the manuscript draft. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Xiao-hua Jiang or Shun Zhang.

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Patient consent was waived for this particular study because this was a retrospective study.

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Zhang, D., Yang, Y., Hu, Rh. et al. The impact of SARS-Cov-2 Omicron infection on short-term outcomes after elective surgery in patients with gastrointestinal cancer. Updates Surg (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13304-024-01781-y

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