key: cord-0724462-9ji65ha7
authors: O’ Connell, K.; Fitzpatrick, F.; Richmond, A.; Foley, M.; Martin, F.
title: Re: Al-Muharraqi MA. Testing recommendation for COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) in patients planned for surgery – continuing the service and ‘suppressing’ the pandemic. Br J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2020 Apr 13 pii: S0266-4356(20)30164-9. doi: 10.1016/j.bjoms.2020.04.014. [Epub ahead of print]
date: 2020-05-16
journal: Br J Oral Maxillofac Surg
DOI: 10.1016/j.bjoms.2020.05.012
sha: acc0796b78ec5fdefec70592a7fb2e10d5830307
doc_id: 724462
cord_uid: 9ji65ha7

nan

Re: Al-Muharraqi MA. Testing recommendation for COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) in patients planned for surgery -continuing the service and 'suppressing' the pandemic. Br advised to 'cocoon' or minimise all interaction between them and others, a low positivity rate was expected. It is likely that COVID-19 will be a public health issue for the foreseeable future and therefore surgeons will have to develop strategies to manage this risk. As only emergency and urgent surgeries are currently taking place, now is the optimal time to hone these strategies. Whilst we observed a low positivity rate with our pre-operative testing strategy employing PCR alone, we would expect this figure to increase as public health restrictions ease. The challenges and limitations of antibody testing are well described and therefore we chose not to include this testing method in our pre-operative screening programme. [3] As highly sensitive molecular point-of-care tests become increasingly available, pre-operative testing can become even more streamlined allowing for testing on the day of the planned procedure to provide maximum reassurance of a negative COVID status at the time of the procedure.

Testing recommendation for COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) in patients planned for surgery -continuing the service and 'suppressing' the pandemic

Clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients undergoing surgeries during the incubation period of COVID-19 infection

The important role of serology for COVID-19 control

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