Announcement of the Royal College of Surgeons of Thailand on Guidance for Surgery in COVID-19 Patients

Abstract

COVID-19 has demonstrated significantly impact on healthcare professionals practice including surgeons. The Royal College of Surgeons of Thailand (RCST) has developed the “Guidance for Surgery in COVID-19 Patients” for surgeons and related medical personnel to handle surgical care during COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 is the newly emerged outbreak, the understanding of its nature, also the prevention and control of this disease is limited. Since there are very few studies on this new coronavirus, some knowledge and assumption were drawn from the lesson learnt from the outbreak of SARs and MERs (both are also RNA coronavirus) in the past. Therefore, the recommendation, as stated in this manuscript, needs to be updated accordingly to the current situation.  The medical practitioners need to cling on the new status of COVID-19 constantly. In case that anyone who has any relevant information and want to bring to our attention, please email to siriwittayakorn@gmail.com. 

With no legal effect, this guidance should contemporarily conform to the occurrence (current situation or incident), character (internal factors of the patient), and circumstances (external factors of the patient, e.g. hospital resources, equipment, and capacity).