Incidence of COVID-19 in pediatric surgical patients

Editor's Note

The overall incidence of COVID-19 in children who had preoperative screening was less than 1%; however, this varied greatly between regions, ranging from 0.22% to 2.65%.

Included in the study were pediatric patients presenting for surgery at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, and Seattle Children’s Hospital.

Of 1,295 patients analyzed, 12 had COVID-19. Half of these, (6) had preoperative symptoms, such as fever and rhinorrhea, and the other half had no symptoms. In addition, some of the symptoms were easily attributed to unrelated conditions, such as appendicitis.

Multivariate analysis found age and ASA emergent classification to be associated with COVID-19.