RE: GlobalSurg | CovidSurg – Week study

NIHR Global Research Unit on Global Surgery
Office 15, 2nd Floor, Institute of Translational Medicine
Heritage Building, Mindelsohn Way
Birmingham
B15 2TH

14ht July 2020
a.a.bhangu@bham.ac.uk

RE: GlobalSurg | CovidSurg – Week study

Dear colleague,
We are writing to you on behalf of the GlobalSurg and CovidSurg collaboratives, two international surgical research networks joining efforts to deliver GlobalSurg | CovidSurg – Week.

CovidSurg Cohort study has demonstrated the adverse outcomes of surgery in SARS-CoV-2 infected patients, achieving a publication in The Lancet. Early signals from CovidSurg-Cancer show that surgery following SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with poor outcomes, even if surgery is several weeks after initial diagnosis. However, more granular data are needed to explore this.

GlobalSurg | CovidSurg Week is an international multi-centre cohort study that aims:
(1) To determine the optimal timing of surgery following SARS-CoV-2 infection;
(2) Determine assess key global surgical indicators, such as postoperative mortality.

In order to achieve the above aims, this study will include all patients undergoing surgery with a preoperative, postoperative or no SARS-CoV-2 infection. All hospitals are eligible to participate, regardless having admitted SARS-CoV-2 infected patients or not.

We would be delighted to have your team on board. We foresee this GlobalSurg & CovidSurg collaboration to be an expansion of the original collaboratives, that have proven to efficiently engage over 1000 hospitals and collect data from more than 35000 patients. Data collection is planned to happen for 1 week only during October 2020. We encourage you to seek your own local approvals and build local teams, involving as many specialties in your hospital as possible.

All the collaborators participating in GlobalSurg | CovidSurg – Week will be recognised with PubMed-indexed collaborative co-authorship on any resulting papers (example: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31182-X/fulltext).

Please address us any queries through covidsurg@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Aneel Bhangu MBChB PhD FRCS
NIHR Clinician Scientist in Global Surgery
Senior Lecturer in Global Surgery
University of Birmingham, UK

Honorary Consultant Colorectal Surgeon
University Hospitals Birmingham, UK

Determining the optimal timing for surgery following
SARS-CoV-2 infection

Study design:

• Prospective, observational international cohort study.

Aims:

• To determine the optimal timing of surgery following SARS-CoV-2 infection;
• To determine assess key global surgical indicators, such as postoperative mortality.

Inclusion criteria:

• All hospitals worldwide can participate, including hospitals that have not admitted SARS-CoV-2 infected patients.
• Patient inclusion criteria
  • Any operation (elective or emergency) done in an operating theatre by a surgeon, excluding minor procedures. Day case surgery and inpatient surgery included.
  • Any SARS-CoV-2 status (positive at any time, negative, not tested).
  • All ages including children and adults.
  • All surgical specialties including: acute care surgery, breast surgery, cardiac surgery, colorectal surgery, general surgery, gynaecology, hepatobiliary surgery, neurosurgery, obstetrics, oesophagogastric surgery, ophthalmology, oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthopaedics, otolaryngology, paediatric surgery, plastic surgery, thoracic surgery, transplant surgery, trauma surgery, urology, vascular surgery.

Data collection:

• 7-day data collection period, with 30-day follow-up for each patient.
• A mini-team of up to three collaborators per specialty will collect data during each 7-day data collection period. Data collection periods should start between 1 – 31 October 2020.
• Multiple mini-teams may participate at the same hospital, either collecting data in different specialties, or in the same specialty during distinct 7-day blocks.
• Data will be collected and stored online through the secure REDCap web application.
• All consecutive eligible patients should be included

Outcomes:

• Primary outcome: 30-day mortality.
• Secondary Outcomes:
  • In-patient mortality
  • 30-day postoperative pulmonary complications (pneumonia, ARDS, unexpected ventilation)
  • 30-day venous thromboembolism
  • 30-day Clavien-Dindo grade

Local Approvals:

• Principal investigators at each participating site are responsible for obtaining necessary local approvals in line with their hospital’s regulations.

Authorship:

• All collaborators will be included as PubMed-citable co-authors on resulting publications.