Olszewski T, Grubic AD, Ayazi S, Jobe BA. COVID-19 outbreak and endoscopy: Considerations in patients encountered in a foregut surgery practice. World J Gastrointest Surg 2020; 12(5): 197-202 [PMID: 32551025 DOI: 10.4240/wjgs.v12.i5.197]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Shahin Ayazi, MD, Foregut Surgeon, Esophageal and Lung Institute, Department of Surgery, Allegheny Health Network, 4815 Liberty Avenue, Suite 439, Pittsburgh, PA 15224, United States. shahin.ayazi@ahn.org
Research Domain of This Article
Surgery
Article-Type of This Article
Opinion Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Surg. May 27, 2020; 12(5): 197-202 Published online May 27, 2020. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v12.i5.197
COVID-19 outbreak and endoscopy: Considerations in patients encountered in a foregut surgery practice
Tanya Olszewski, Andrew D Grubic, Shahin Ayazi, Blair A Jobe
Tanya Olszewski, Andrew D Grubic, Shahin Ayazi, Blair A Jobe, Esophageal and Lung Institute, Department of Surgery, Allegheny Health Network, Pittsburgh, PA 15224, United States
Author contributions: All author contributed to this work; Olszewski T, Grubic AD, Ayazi S, Jobe BA had concept of the study and designed it; Olszewski T and Grubic AD reviewed the literature; Olszewski T, Grubic AD and Ayazi S drafted the manuscript; Ayazi S and Jobe BA provided critical revision.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Shahin Ayazi, MD, Foregut Surgeon, Esophageal and Lung Institute, Department of Surgery, Allegheny Health Network, 4815 Liberty Avenue, Suite 439, Pittsburgh, PA 15224, United States. shahin.ayazi@ahn.org
Received: April 2, 2020 Peer-review started: April 2, 2020 First decision: April 19, 2020 Revised: April 23, 2020 Accepted: May 19, 2020 Article in press: May 19, 2020 Published online: May 27, 2020
Core Tip
Core tip: The coronavirus disease 2019 symptoms include fever and cough although patients may have a wide variety of symptoms or may be asymptomatic. Patients can transmit the disease via respiratory droplets, aerosol generating procedures including endoscopy, fecal-oral route and surface contact. Our practice guidelines: (1) Reschedule elective cases, follow tiered approach to determine urgency of cases; (2) Prescreen patients day-before procedures over the phone, perform day-of rapid testing if available; (3) Consider all patients asymptomatic carriers despite testing results; (4) Biosafety level 3 for endoscopy with minimal staff present; and (5) Biosafety level 2 for handling specimens, endoscope and for cleaning procedure room afterward.
