A SURGICAL AUDIT OF GENERAL SURGERY CASES IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL AND THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON THE SAME
BACKGROUND: After the COVID-19 pandemic was declared on March 11, 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO), routine clinical and surgical practices were affected, including General Surgery services. We aimed to compare how our General Surgery department was affected during this time period of Covid, we have included various parameters, we have also statistically shown how the elective and emergency services were before the Covid outbreak and during the COVID-19 pandemic in our institution. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We retro spectively compared General Surgery practices, including elective, emergency and septic surgeries in a surgical unit of Sir JJ Group of Hospitals over a span of 3 years (April 2018 - March 2021), including the era before and during Covid. RESULTS: The frequency of all the surgeries performed during the pandemic was lower as compared to previous two years before the pandemic in our study, also there was a signicant drop in the number of laparoscopic surgeries. CONCLUSION: The General Surgery practices in our institution have been drastically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This setback needs a denite strategy to be formulated to decrease the morbidity and mortality from the neglected elective surgical cases, the real risk-benet ratio must be met before operating such cases.