PMID- 32537687
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20200918
LR  - 20210110
IS  - 2038-3312 (Electronic)
IS  - 2038-131X (Print)
IS  - 2038-131X (Linking)
VI  - 72
IP  - 3
DP  - 2020 Sep
TI  - Impact of COVID-19 on thyroid cancer surgery and adjunct therapy.
PG  - 867-869
LID - 10.1007/s13304-020-00833-3 [doi]
AB  - COVID-19 has profoundly modified the way healthcare is delivered. Jordan imposed 
      lockdown and restrictive policies between March 17 and May 20, 2020. We aimed to 
      assess the impact of such measures on thyroid cancer treatment plans. In the 
      specified period, 12 patients were scheduled for surgery. Since papillary 
      carcinoma was the preoperative diagnosis in all cases, radioactive iodine 
      ablation (RIA) therapy was also planned 3-4 weeks following surgery after 
      withdrawing thyroxine and achieving a thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) 
      level > 30 mU/L. Thyroxine withdrawal is the routine method applied for RIA in 
      Jordan as it is less costly compared to the rapid method of exogenous stimulation 
      using recombinant TSH. All surgical procedures were performed without delay since 
      all patients were asymptomatic per flu-like illness and came from a region of low 
      COVID-19 prevalence. These included total thyroidectomy (n = 11), bilateral 
      therapeutic central compartment neck dissection (n = 7), lateral compartment neck 
      dissection (n = 5). However, the RIA treatment plan was altered considerably 
      according to the period in which they were operated. 6 out of the 7 patients 
      operated in March changed to the stimulated method of RIA at a considerable 
      additional extra cost. The seventh patient and the April patient opt to delay RIA 
      until after lockdown. The remaining cases (operated in May) followed the usual 
      withdrawal method as restrictions were due to an end. The restrictive measures 
      applied during COVID-19 did not affect the safe and timely delivery of surgical 
      care. However, it added a financial and psychological burden to the entire cancer 
      management plan.
FAU - Bakkar, Sohail
AU  - Bakkar S
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0001-8479-5901
AD  - Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, 
      13133, Jordan. sohail.bakkar@gmail.com.
FAU - Al-Omar, Khaled
AU  - Al-Omar K
AD  - Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, 
      13133, Jordan.
FAU - Aljarrah, Qusai
AU  - Aljarrah Q
AD  - Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Jordan University of Science and 
      Technology, Irbid, 22110, Jordan.
FAU - Al-Dabbas, Moh'd
AU  - Al-Dabbas M
AD  - Farah Medical Campus (FMC), Amman, 11183, Jordan.
FAU - Al-Dabbas, Nesrin
AU  - Al-Dabbas N
AD  - Farah Medical Campus (FMC), Amman, 11183, Jordan.
FAU - Samara, Samara
AU  - Samara S
AD  - Farah Medical Campus (FMC), Amman, 11183, Jordan.
FAU - Miccoli, Paolo
AU  - Miccoli P
AD  - Department of Surgical, Medical, Pathology, and Critical Care, The University of 
      Pisa, 56124, Pisa, Italy.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20200614
PL  - Italy
TA  - Updates Surg
JT  - Updates in surgery
JID - 101539818
SB  - IM
MH  - Adult
MH  - Aged
MH  - Aged, 80 and over
MH  - *Betacoronavirus
MH  - COVID-19
MH  - Carcinoma, Papillary/*therapy
MH  - Combined Modality Therapy
MH  - Communicable Disease Control/*organization & administration
MH  - Coronavirus Infections/*epidemiology/prevention & control/transmission
MH  - Female
MH  - Health Services Accessibility/*organization & administration
MH  - Humans
MH  - Jordan
MH  - Male
MH  - Middle Aged
MH  - Neck Dissection
MH  - Pandemics/prevention & control
MH  - Pneumonia, Viral/*epidemiology/prevention & control/transmission
MH  - Retrospective Studies
MH  - SARS-CoV-2
MH  - Thyroid Neoplasms/*therapy
MH  - Thyroidectomy
MH  - Treatment Outcome
PMC - PMC7293828
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - COVID-19
OT  - Pandemic
OT  - SARS-CoV-2
OT  - Thyroid surgery
COIS- The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
EDAT- 2020/06/17 06:00
MHDA- 2020/09/20 06:00
PMCR- 2020/06/14
CRDT- 2020/06/16 06:00
PHST- 2020/05/24 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2020/06/10 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2020/06/17 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2020/09/20 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2020/06/16 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2020/06/14 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 10.1007/s13304-020-00833-3 [pii]
AID - 833 [pii]
AID - 10.1007/s13304-020-00833-3 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Updates Surg. 2020 Sep;72(3):867-869. doi: 10.1007/s13304-020-00833-3. Epub 2020 
      Jun 14.