Method
In this cross sectional study, the medical files of 503 patients
undergoing cardiovascular surgery (January 21, 2020 - April 18, 2020) at
Tehran Heart Center (THC) 9, a cardiac tertiary
center, affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences, were
evaluated, retrospectively. Among these individuals, 64 patients
(12.7%) had been diagnosed as COVID-19 cases after the surgery by
Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR
[Nanjing Vazyme Medical
Technology Co., Ltd]) and chest computed tomography (CT) scan
following getting symptomatic or detection of abnormality in laboratory
results. However, the surgery was canceled before induction of the
anesthesia in one of these patients who was candidate for valve surgery,
because the operation team got suspected to COVID-19 due to his abnormal
complete blood count (CBC) findings. Hence this patient was excluded
from the study. The patients’ demographic information, cardiovascular
risk factor, past medical history, laboratory data, surgery type,
computed tomography (CT) scan findings, left ventricular ejection
fraction (LVEF) and survival status were documented.
The study protocol was approved by local review board and ethical
committee of the hospital and all authors adhered to Helsinki’s
statement.