key: cord-0901866-0wtgycv5
authors: Mouawad, Nicolas J.; Cuff, Robert F.; Hultgren, Rebecka; Chuen, Jason; Galeazzi, Edoardo; Wohlauer, Max
title: The Vascular Surgery Covid-19 Collaborative (VASCC)
date: 2020-04-22
journal: J Vasc Surg
DOI: 10.1016/j.jvs.2020.04.463
sha: ae5b26872ab1432c3b85c2651a9c732ecf7c2324
doc_id: 901866
cord_uid: 0wtgycv5

nan

has severely impacted the delivery of health care services in the United States and around the 4 world. As of April 9, 2020, there are more than 1.5 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 5 worldwide and over 16,000 deaths in the United States alone [1, 2] . The important public health 6 guidelines of social distancing to help curtail and flatten the curve through mitigation and 7 suppression has resulted in a dramatic reduction of in-person clinic visits, if not halting them 8 completely. Furthermore, in an effort to preserve the very scarce assets of personal protective 9 equipment as well as Intensive Care Unit resources, such as ventilators, medications, and trained 10 personnel, elective vascular surgical cases have decreased significantly. 11

The American College of Surgeons placed recommendations on the management of 12 elective surgical procedures with the use of the Elective Surgery Acuity Scale on March 13, 2020, 13 and specific tiers to triage vascular surgery operations [3, 4] . On March 14, 2020, the Surgeon 14 General urged the widespread halt of hospital elective procedures due to the mounting concerns 15 of the Covid-19 surge. Given these discussions, most vascular surgeons have reduced their 16 practice patterns to emergency vascular surgery and/or very urgent cases. 17

The adage of "time is tissue" remains a paramount concern for the vascular surgery 18 community. On behalf of our patients, we are concerned about the delays of these procedures 19 but clearly understand the public health necessity to restrict the use of valuable equipment and 20 personnel. Despite physical distancing, within several days vascular surgeons organized through 21 social media both locally and internationally to work, understand, and help predict what these 22 unanticipated delays would be on patient outcomes. This led to the inception of the Vascular 23

COVID-19)

COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic

American College of Surgeons. COVID-19: Recommendations for Management of 6

Elective Surgical Procedures

American College of Surgoens. COVID-19 Guidelines for Triage of Vascular Surgery 9