Management of Vascular Surgical Urgencies during COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 pandemic characterized for a very quick outbreak, and Italy was one of the first European countries to be heavily affected.1,2 This condition required a fast reorganization of hospital departments and activities, to give priority to patients affected by COVID-19 and, at the same time, give assistance to other people suffering from urgent conditions.3,4 At Fondazione Policlinico A. Gemelli in Rome, the department of vascular surgery underwent a reduction of beds (from 9 to 5) and elective surgical activity (reserved for those conditions listed in our National Society guidelines), to preserve beds in intensive care units for the most severe patients affected by COVID-19. This reorganization made it difficult to deal with the several surgical urgencies we had in the month of April 2020. In fact, our department continued to represent the hub center for part of the region Lazio and admitted patients who would have been normally treated in hospitals now completely reserved for COVID-19. We made a comparison between the “normal period” of April 2019 and the “pandemic” period of April 2020, examining our medical records.