ANZ journal of surgery
-
The novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, caused the COVID-19 global pandemic. In response, the Australian and New Zealand governments activated their respective emergency plans and hospital frameworks to deal with the potential increased demand on scarce resources. Surgical triage formed an important part of this response to protect the healthcare system's capacity to respond to COVID-19. ⋯ During the COVID-19 pandemic, urgent and emergency surgery must continue. A carefully staged return of elective surgery should align with a decrease in COVID-19 caseload. Combining evidence and expert opinion, schemas and recommendations have been proposed to guide this process in Australia and New Zealand.
-
ANZ journal of surgery · Mar 2020
ReviewFrailty in the older person undergoing elective surgery: a trigger for enhanced multidisciplinary management - a narrative review.
The ageing of our society has led to increasing numbers of older people requiring elective surgical procedures. Preoperative frailty is a strong predictor of adverse post-operative outcomes. This review aims to summarize the evidence for interventions aimed at improving outcomes in frail older people who may undergo elective surgery. ⋯ Establishing multidisciplinary collaborative services to provide person-centred models of care should be considered for older people presenting for elective surgery, particularly in those with greater preoperative frailty. Further large-scale studies should focus on implementing and evaluating such multicomponent models of care.