INTRODUCTION
Reports describe high mortality and prolonged mechanical ventilation in surgical patients who diagnosed with COVID-19 in the peri-operative period [1-2]. In our own experience, developing COVID-19 in the immediate postoperative period following cardiac surgery carried a mortality up to 44% [3], mostly due to a combination of respiratory and renal failure likely exacerbated by the inflammatory effects of cardiopulmonary bypass.
Depending on the cardiac diagnosis, there might be an option to treat the patients medically, with less invasive procedures (i.e. PCI, TAVI or endovascular procedures) or to defer surgery until there is negative conversion of COVID-19 status, not knowing the optimum time from infection to cardiac surgery.
We analysed the outcomes of cardiac surgery in patients who underwent cardiac surgery after recovering from COVID-19.