INTRODUCTION: Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused postponements of elective cardiac surgery. We hypothesised that postponements due to the pandemic were associated with higher levels of psychological distress than prepandemic postponements. METHODS: A prospective, observational cohort study was conducted among patients in whom elective cardiac surgery was postponed. Patients who received information regarding a new date of surgery prior to the pandemic were compared with patients postponed during the pandemic without information regarding a new date of surgery. Data were collected from patient records, validated questionnaires and interviews. RESULTS: Out of 55 postponed patients, 21 experienced prepandemic postponement. No significant differences were observed between groups regarding the psychological measures before their rescheduled operation. However, patients in both groups reported high levels of anxiety and depression with > 60% indicative of potentially positive diagnoses. No differences were found in mortality across groups and no patients developed severe complications. Interviews showed that patients in the COVID-19 group felt immediate relief at postponement and engaged in a meaning-making process with respect to their ability to tolerate postponement in order to reassure themselves and their relatives. CONCLUSIONS: No significant differences were found in psychological distress between the patients of the two groups. However, both groups experienced high levels of psychological distress. It remains unknown whether these results may be extrapolated to other surgical fields. FUNDING: none. TRIAL REGISTRATION: not relevant. Articles published in the DMJ are “open access”. This means that the articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
INTRODUCTION: Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused postponements of elective cardiac surgery. We hypothesised that postponements due to the pandemic were associated with higher levels of psychological distress than prepandemic postponements. METHODS: A prospective, observational cohort study was conducted among patients in whom elective cardiac surgery was postponed. Patients who received information regarding a new date of surgery prior to the pandemic were compared with patients postponed during the pandemic without information regarding a new date of surgery. Data were collected from patient records, validated questionnaires and interviews. RESULTS: Out of 55 postponed patients, 21 experienced prepandemic postponement. No significant differences were observed between groups regarding the psychological measures before their rescheduled operation. However, patients in both groups reported high levels of anxiety and depression with > 60% indicative of potentially positive diagnoses. No differences were found in mortality across groups and no patients developed severe complications. Interviews showed that patients in the COVID-19 group felt immediate relief at postponement and engaged in a meaning-making process with respect to their ability to tolerate postponement in order to reassure themselves and their relatives. CONCLUSIONS: No significant differences were found in psychological distress between the patients of the two groups. However, both groups experienced high levels of psychological distress. It remains unknown whether these results may be extrapolated to other surgical fields. FUNDING: none. TRIAL REGISTRATION: not relevant. Articles published in the DMJ are “open access”. This means that the articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
Authors: Juan Gómez-Salgado; Fredy Pomares-Herrera; Javier Fagundo-Rivera; Mónica Ortega-Moreno; Juan Jesús García-Iglesias; Carlos Ruiz-Frutos Journal: Ann Med Date: 2022-12 Impact factor: 5.348