Study: Surgery cancellation rate in Malaysia at 70.9 pct due to Covid-19

CORONAVIRUS | A new study published in the British Journal of Surgery has revealed that over 28 million elective surgeries across the globe could be cancelled as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, with participating Malaysian hospitals revealing a surgery cancellation rate of 70.9 percent.

Based on a 12-week period of peak disruption to hospital services due to Covid-19, the study conducted by the CovidSurg Collaborative projected that 28.4 million elective surgeries worldwide are at risk of cancellation or postponement in 2020, leading to patients facing a lengthy wait for their health issues to be resolved.

Led by researchers at the University of Birmingham, detailed information was collected from surgeons across 359 hospitals and 71 countries, including Malaysia, on plans for cancellation of elective surgeries.

The modelling study indicates that each additional week of disruption to hospital services will be associated with a further 2.4 million cancellations.

The researchers also project that 72.3 percent of planned surgeries worldwide would be cancelled through the peak period of Covid-19 related disruption.

Among the participating Malaysian hospitals, the overall surgery cancellation rate was 70.9 percent.

The surgeries most subject to cancellation were those for benign diseases (81.5 percent), followed by cancer surgery (41 percent) and obstetrics (26.1 percent).

"Most cancelled surgeries will be for non-cancer conditions. Orthopaedic procedures will be cancelled most frequently, with 6.3 million orthopaedic surgeries cancelled worldwide over a 12-week period.

"It is also projected that globally, 2.3 million cancer surgeries will be cancelled or postponed," revealed the study.

The predicted backlog for a 12-week cancellation was 151,717 surgeries, with an 11-month backlog clearance time even if a 20 percent increase in pre-pandemic surgery numbers is possible.

Aneel Bhangu, consultant surgeon and senior lecturer at the NIHR Global Health Research Unit on global surgery at the University of Birmingham, commented: “During the Covid-19 pandemic, elective surgeries have been cancelled to reduce the risk of patients being exposed to Covid-19 in hospital and to support the wider hospital response, for example by converting operating theatres into intensive care units.

“Although essential, cancellations place a heavy burden on patients and society. Patients' conditions may deteriorate, worsening their quality of life as they wait for rescheduled surgery.

“In some cases, for example, cancer, delayed surgeries may lead to a number of unnecessary deaths,” he said.

Taking this into consideration, the College of Surgeons, Academy of Medicine of Malaysia (CSAMM) has provided regular guidance to its members on tailoring the delivery of surgical services, according to individual hospital capacity, local Covid-19 epidemiology and movement control order (MCO) conditions.

CSAMM president Dr April Camilla Roslani said that this has avoided a complete shutdown of elective surgeries nationally, allowing those that need urgent surgery to be treated, thus preventing unnecessary deaths, while minimising disease transmission.

Inter-hospital collaborations, between public and private sectors, have been instrumental in mitigating the disruption to surgical services. - Mkini