Back to Basics – The best approach in reconstructive surgery to tide over the COVID pandemic crisis

Abstract

BackgroundCOVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on Plastic Surgery practices globally. The superior forms of reconstruction or repair take long operative hours, more surgical team members and invasive post-operative monitoring which impose substantial risk of acquiring the infection. Having faced the numerous issues, we considered basic “old school” reconstructive strategies over the ideal ones during this pandemic and realized their importance. MethodIn this retrospective study period of one year, the patients whom we had earlier planned for a superior form of reconstruction, but ultimately had to be managed in a basic, safe, quick and “old school” ways, were included. The details of the changed plans of reconstruction or repair, the operative time, number of team members, post-operative stay and other data were retrieved and analysed. ResultsAmong the 30 patients included, the mean age was 39.9 years, with male to female ratio of 3:2. The mean operative time was 64.7 minutes and the mean number of surgical team members was 2.5. The mean period of post-operative inpatient stay was 2.4 days. 16.7% of patients were infected by COVID-19 within the immediate 2 weeks of post-operative period but with no mortality. The mean period of OPD follow-up was 5.5 days after discharge with 20% overall complications. ConclusionIn this diffi cult time of the COVID pandemic, the basic and fundamental surgical plans of repair and reconstruction still hold their signifi cance and should be considered to achieve the reconstructive goals.