Have Elective Surgeries Restarted? What Safety Regulations And Social Distancing Policies Are Required?

Eduardo Shaw

The Department of Health has issued guidance for hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers to begin resuming surgeries.

Facilities that restart elective services must establish additional steps to protect healthcare workers and patients, including:

  • Comply with state and CDC standards to protect against the spread of COVID-19;
  • Perform a preoperative COVID-19 RT-PCR test on each patient who is to undergo elective surgery, within 96 hours prior to the scheduled time for the procedure, and ensure that the test result is negative;
  • Establish the review of personnel to detect symptoms and have policies established for the replacement of symptomatic employees;
  • Enforce social distancing requirements at work and in common areas;
  • Require cloth covers or masks for patients, except those receiving services that do not allow covering the face;
  • Whenever possible, establish care zones for non-COVID-19 patients in facilities that serve patients with and without COVID-19;
  • Facilities treating COVID-19 cases should continue to prepare for potential new waves of cases;

Additionally, ambulatory surgical centers should not perform procedures on COVID-19 patients who have tested positive. Centers should have a plan for patients and their support persons to wear personal protective equipment (PPE). Centers should implement cleaning and disinfection protocols and group COVID-19 patients from other patients.

Guidance For Dentists, Eye Doctors, And Other Health Care Offices

The New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs has published guidance for restarting elective surgeries for professional health care offices, private practices, clinics, urgent care centers, community medical centers.

Requirements include, but are not limited to:

Prioritize services that, if deferred, are most likely to harm the patient.

Prioritize at-risk populations that would benefit the most from these services.

Require anyone visiting the office for an in-person visit to wear, at a minimum, a cloth face covering

  • Call all patients seeking in-person appointments (or the patient's parents/guardians) to: (1) assess whether an in-person visit is necessary; (2) determine the patient's current health status; (3) determine if the patient has had a known exposure to COVID-19, has compatible symptoms, or has tested positive; (4) determine the time elapsed from positive test results, and (5) advise the patient during in-person appointment scheduling of the requirement to wear a face-covering.
  • Examine all patients upon arrival, regardless of symptoms, using non-contact temperature control or thermometers with disposable covers, and record the result in the patient report.
  • Space appointments to minimize patient-to-patient contact and the number of people in the office at any given time. If feasible and consistent with social distancing, patients should remain in their cars or outside the facility until they can be seen, or wait in separate rooms to minimize contact with other patients.
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Elective, Urgent And Emergency Surgery: Differences

Eduardo Shaw

Elective surgery occurs when the patient has the time to carefully evaluate the risks and benefits of the procedure and identify what is most appropriate for their treatment.

The substance of this type of surgical intervention, unlike urgent or emergency surgery, is that the best time to perform it can be coordinated between doctor and patient.

These are performed by medical indication (cataract procedures, application of orthopedic prostheses, among many others) or by own decision (cosmetic surgeries).

One of the main advantages of this type of surgery is that it allows the recommended fasting period to be set and enables the patient to be conditioned so that the procedure is carried out in optimal clinical conditions (for example, high blood pressure control, medication suspension, etc.)

Emergency surgery

Emergency surgery is one that is performed within the first 24 hours after the medical diagnosis. Usually responds to a health problem that occurs suddenly and requires assistance within a reasonable period of time.

Examples: appendicitis, strangulated hernia, ectopic pregnancy, torsion of the ovary, or testicles, among others.

Emergency surgery

Emergency surgery is one that occurs when there is a critical situation of obvious danger to the patient’s life and requires immediate action within the first 30 minutes. For this type of surgery, there are no schedules; the patient arrives and, depending on its severity, stabilizes, and is immediately transferred to the operating room.

Examples: placental abruption in pregnant women, cesarean section for fetal bradycardia, traumatic arterial injury, among others.

Since emergency surgeries are performed with little or no advance planning, it is not possible to guide the recommended fasting period, with the consequent increase in risks and complications resulting in the event of aspiration of gastric contents during anesthetic induction, the procedure, or immediate postoperative.…

Rhinoplasty: Tips For Choosing The Best Technique 

Eduardo Shaw

The image as a way of life. The audiovisual world, social networks, interactive communication … The digital universe, in short, is the new center of everything. That is why the image that we transmit to others has become extremely important. It is not surprising then that the number of cosmetic surgery operations grows year by year. One of the most demanded, along with breast augmentation.

The best techniques to undergo a rhinoplasty

Nose operations are, as we said, one of the most demanded. It seems that certain features do not match well with current beauty standards. We speak large noses, with curvatures, aquiline, etc. On the contrary, there is a high demand for thin, flat, and small shapes, even a little upturned.

There are 3 types of rhinoplasty techniques: Closed and open, the traditional ones, and ultrasonic, the most modern and least invasive technique. We give you some tips to take them into account before making a decision.

    • Find out from professionals accredited by the College of Physicians which technique is best suited to your situation.
    • Make sure you operate in a clinic with all the guarantees and certificates.
    • If you have problems with asymmetry, bumps, and other irregularities, ultrasonic rhinoplasty is the most recommended. It is also the least invasive and the one that leaves a more natural result.
    • Open rhinoplasty is indicated to correct long or crooked noses, drooping or wide tips, or the elimination of a significant curvature in the upper part. It is a very invasive technique with external scars.
  • Closed rhinoplasty is a less invasive technique than open rhinoplasty and is used in cases where it is necessary to remove or add cartilage, define the straight profile, correct the tip.

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