Rebecca Claure

In order to prevent in-hospital transmission and potential complications related to SARS-CoV-2 in the perioperative patient, most healthcare institutions require preoperative testing for SARS-CoV-2 prior to proceeding with elective surgery. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends a time and symptom-based duration of isolation for the presumed infectious period. The guidance to avoid retesting of asymptomatic patients in the 90 days following a positive reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test is because of the possibility of detection of non-infectious viral shedding. When to reschedule asymptomatic patients who test RT-PCR positive for SARS-CoV-2 preoperatively is of considerable debate, both from the perspective of ensuring a patient's full preoperative fitness, as well as reducing the risk of viral transmission within the hospital. We describe the novel perioperative use of a strand-specific assay to detect minus strand ribonucleic acid (RNA) in a clinical decision-making algorithm to determine optimal timing of elective surgery after a patient tests RT-PCR positive for SARS-CoV-2. This is the first description in the literature of an attempt to further stratify patients who repeatedly test positive for SARS-CoV-2 into infectious versus non-infectious for perioperative planning.

Background: The goal of preoperative fasting is to prevent pulmonary aspiration during general anesthesia. Fasting times are often prolonged leading to patient discomfort and risk for adverse events. This retrospective quality improvement survey evaluated effective nil-per-os (NPO) times and causes for prolonged NPO times with the aim to suggest improvement strategies by a newly founded fasting task force.Methods: Data from all electronic anesthesia records from 2019 at our institution were reviewed for fasting times. Our NPO instructions follow American Society of Anesthesiology guidelines and are calculated based on the patient’s arrival time (90 min before OR time). Primary outcome was the effective NPO time for clear liquids, secondary outcomes were incidence of delays and the parental compliance with the NPO instructions. Data are presented as median (interquartile range).Results: 9,625 cases were included in the analysis. NPO time was documented in 72.1% with a median effective NPO time of 7:13 h (7:36). OR in room times were documented in 72.8%, 2,075 (29.5%; median time 0:10 h [0:21]) were earlier and 4,939 (70.5%; median time 0:29 h [0:54]) were later than scheduled. Parental NPO compliance showed a median deviation for clear liquid intake of 0:55 h (8:30).Conclusions: This study revealed that effective NPO times were longer than current ASA guidelines. Contributing causes include case delays and parental non-compliance to NPO instructions. Thus, task force recommendations include change NPO instruction calculations to scheduled OR time versus arrival time, and encourage parents to give their child clear liquids at the instructed time.