As Istanbul Obesity Surgery, it is our first priority to consider the best and your health for you. Therefore, we had a need to make a statement for you due to recent events about whether or not to perform obesity surgeries in this risky period.
First, we determined the questions that our patients were curious about and aimed to give appropriate answers to these questions.
Should I have surgery?
Would my surgery jeopardize the safety of me and the medical team that performed the surgery?
Would I have problems recovering from surgery?
Does the restriction of nutrition period negatively affect my immune system?
The whole world is trying to combat the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Covid-19 is a highly infectious virus with a mortality rate of 0.5 to 10%. All countries and their health systems take various measures for this. Some countries have declared a curfew, while others have closed their country’s borders completely.
This virus poses a risk for anyone with chronic disease, even if it usually affects the elderly population. Intensive care may be required later in the infection.
Although there is a low probability after obesity operations, the patient may be able to spend the first day after surgery in an intensive care unit for precautionary purposes.
Therefore, this situation both risks our patient about the possibility of COVID-19 transmission and decreases the capacity of intensive care units which are very important in combating the virus.
Surgeries are divided into 3 as Emergency, Elective and Semi-Elective Surgeries. Obesity surgery is in the category of Elective Surgeries.
In this regard, the Republic of Turkey in the circular issued by the Ministry of Health, done in a more convenient date as possible of non-urgent elective surgery is recommended.
Abroad, for example, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends postponing all day or elective surgery procedures. In the same way, in the USA, the American College of Surgeons (COVID-19: Guidance for Non-Emergent Surgical Procedures), which is the parent institution of surgeons, the American College of Surgeons (COVID-19: Guidance for Triage of Non-Emergent Surgical Procedures) they prepared a triage guide.
In this guide, Obesity Surgery is evaluated in 2A class. In other words, it is determined as the operations performed for diseases that do not have a life threatening quality but are likely to cause various health problems in the future. Their suggestion in this regard is to postpone the operation or perform a daily operation.
As Istanbul Obesity Surgery, we declare to our valuable patients that we have postponed our operations until the elimination of the threatening effect of the COVID-19 virus in the scope of the recommendation of national and international authorities and all this current information.
