SIBU: The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a severe impact on Emergency Surgery (ES) services around the world, said Dr Wong Koh Ging.
The organising chairman for the Sibu Update on Surgical Emergencies (SUSE) said a recent publication by World Journal of Emergency Surgery with a worldwide survey found that patients are coming in with more severe and prolonged diseases.
“This is especially true for perforated appendicitis (62.1 per cent) and diverticulitis (57.5 per cent). Half of the survey’s respondents say that emergency response times in ES are slower now than they were before the outbreak,” he said in his welcoming speech at SUSE here today.
He also stressed that the persistent issues with hospital logistics, shortages of medical staff, and inadequate operating room and intensive care capacity after the pandemic may all contribute to the lengthy delay to intervention in ES.
“The survey also noted paradigm shifts in treatment modalities to non-operative approaches reported by 67.3 per cent of the participants, especially in uncomplicated appendicitis, cholecystitis and multiple-recurrent diverticulitis.
“Therefore, I believe today is the greatest day to host this conference so that the expert can update us on the most recent evidence and practise for surgical emergencies,” he said.
Hence, he hoped that the programme which aimed to teach medical professionals about the importance of prompt adequate treatment for common surgical emergencies would benefit all the participants.
