Laparoscopy in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) era

Abstract

The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that emerged in China at the end of 2019 has become a pandemic infection that has now involved 200 countries with 465,915 confirmed cases and 21,031 confirmed deaths. Unfortunately, many data have shown that the high number of undocumented infections could have a major role in the rapid diffusion of the disease. In most of the nations involved, non-urgent, non-cancer procedures have been stopped to reallocate medical and paramedical staff to face the emergency. Moreover, concerns have been raised that minimally invasive surgery could be a procedure that carries the risk of virus diffusion in the operating theater during surgery. This paper reports clinical recommendations and scientific studies to assist clinicians in this field.