key: cord-0749613-9ow8t738
authors: Pilato, Emanuele; Manzo, Rachele; Comentale, Giuseppe
title: COVID‐19 and ischemic heart disease emergencies: What cardiac surgery should expect?
date: 2020-04-17
journal: J Card Surg
DOI: 10.1111/jocs.14556
sha: 516bdce2075dce9f524c8e1b001b2f51a9ba26ec
doc_id: 749613
cord_uid: 9ow8t738

nan

COVID-19 and ischemic heart disease emergencies: What cardiac surgery should expect?

To the Editor, Back to the past? The incidence of mechanical complications of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) needing cardiac surgery has reduced significantly in the last years due to early diagnosis and treatments. Primary coronary angioplasty of culprit lesions, indeed, allowed rescue of vital myocardium after ACS with significant impact on the functional recovery of the heart and long-term morbidity.

COVID-19 pandemic may oddly lead to a changing scenario and significantly modify the cardiac surgery population that we will be dealing within the next weeks. The widespread demand for intensive and subintensive care beds, as well as a cardiac tropism of SARS-CoV-2, 1 has brought to an extensive reassessment of hospitals and emergency rooms (ERs) into COVID-dedicated structures, making them potential contagion areas. In Italy, for example, more than 10% of patients with COVID are health care providers showing how a severe protection policy among hospitals staff is mandatory to protect not only themselves but all kinds of patients. In support of this, 

The variety of cardiovascular presentations of COVID-19