Observational studyThe British journal of surgery2021
Preoperative nasopharyngeal swab testing and postoperative pulmonary complications in patients undergoing elective surgery during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
Observational study in The British journal of surgery, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 66 citations in OpenAlex.
- Making a Joint Decision Regarding the Timing of Surgery for Elective Arthroplasty Surgery After Being Infected With COVID-19: A Systematic Review.The Journal of arthroplasty · 2022Pooled it
- 30-day postoperative mortality and the effects of hospital preparedness during the COVID-19 pandemic: a pooled analysis of prospective international cohort studies.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2026Article
- Surgical Volume and Short-Term Outcomes After Advanced Hepatectomy in the Postpandemic Era: Analysis of the Japanese National Clinical Database (2018-2023).Annals of gastroenterological surgery · 2025Article
- Current insights on social media as a tool for the dissemination of research and education in surgery: a narrative review.Surgery today · 2024Review
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on short-term outcomes after pancreaticoduodenectomy for pancreatic cancer: A retrospective study from the Japanese National Clinical Database, 2018-2021.Annals of gastroenterological surgery · 2024Article
- Digestive and breast cancer patients managed during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic: Short and middle term outcomes.World journal of methodology · 2024Article
- Cost-Effectiveness of Universal Asymptomatic Preoperative SARS-CoV-2 Polymerase Chain Reaction Screening: A Cost-Utility Analysis.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2024Article
- Variation in postoperative outcomes of patients with intracranial tumors: insights from a prospective international cohort study during the COVID-19 pandemic.Neuro-oncology · 2023Article
- Surgical Implications of Coronavirus Disease-19.Gastroenterology clinics of North America · 2023Review
- Exploring Radiologists' Burnout in the COVID-19 Era: A Narrative Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Review
- The snapshot audit methodology: design, implementation and analysis of prospective observational cohort studies in surgery.European journal of trauma and emergency surgery : official publication of the European Trauma Society · 2023Review
- Preoperative SARS-CoV-2 Infection Screening before Thoracic Surgery during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Multicenter Retrospective Study.International journal of clinical practice · 2023Article
- The influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on videolaryngoscopy: a cross-sectional before-and-after survey.Anaesthesiology intensive therapy · 2023Article
- Routine pre-operative Covid testing in elective surgeries: Is it worth it?American journal of surgery · 2022Observational
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on surgical care in the Netherlands.The British journal of surgery · 2022Article
- Correlation between structural heart disease and cardiac SARS-CoV-2 manifestations.Communications medicine · 2022Article
- Elective surgery system strengthening: development, measurement, and validation of the surgical preparedness index across 1632 hospitals in 119 countries.Lancet (London, England) · 2022Article
- Delayed presentation of a huge abdominopelvic mass during the COVID-19 pandemic.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2022Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Elective Surgery for Colorectal Cancer: Lessons to Be Learned.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2022Review
- Safe Surgery During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Current obesity reports · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSurgical services are preparing to scale up in areas affected by COVID-19. This study aimed to evaluate the association between preoperative SARS-CoV-2 testing and postoperative pulmonary complications in patients undergoing elective cancer surgery.
methodsThis international cohort study included adult patients undergoing elective surgery for cancer in areas affected by SARS-CoV-2 up to 19 April 2020. Patients suspected of SARS-CoV-2 infection before operation were excluded. The primary outcome measure was postoperative pulmonary complications at 30 days after surgery. Preoperative testing strategies were adjusted for confounding using mixed-effects models.
resultsOf 8784 patients (432 hospitals, 53 countries), 2303 patients (26.2 per cent) underwent preoperative testing: 1458 (16.6 per cent) had a swab test, 521 (5.9 per cent) CT only, and 324 (3.7 per cent) swab and CT. Pulmonary complications occurred in 3.9 per cent, whereas SARS-CoV-2 infection was confirmed in 2.6 per cent. After risk adjustment, having at least one negative preoperative nasopharyngeal swab test (adjusted odds ratio 0.68, 95 per cent confidence interval 0.68 to 0.98; P = 0.040) was associated with a lower rate of pulmonary complications. Swab testing was beneficial before major surgery and in areas with a high 14-day SARS-CoV-2 case notification rate, but not before minor surgery or in low-risk areas. To prevent one pulmonary complication, the number needed to swab test before major or minor surgery was 18 and 48 respectively in high-risk areas, and 73 and 387 in low-risk areas.
conclusionPreoperative nasopharyngeal swab testing was beneficial before major surgery and in high SARS-CoV-2 risk areas. There was no proven benefit of swab testing before minor surgery in low-risk areas.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.