Study predicts 28 million surgical procedures cancelled worldwide because of COVID-19

Editor's Note

More than 28 million elective surgical procedures worldwide will be cancelled or postponed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study estimates.

Researchers from the University of Birmingham, UK, collected data from surgeons in 359 hospitals and 71 countries. The data was then statistically modeled to estimate total 12-week cancellation rates for 190 countries.

The researchers projected that 72.3% of planned surgical procedures would be cancelled through the peak 12-week period of COVID-19. They also projected that orthopedic procedures would be cancelled most frequently, with 6.3 million cancelled worldwide, and that 2.3 million cancer procedures would be cancelled or postponed.

The modeling study also indicated that each additional week of disruption to hospital services would be associated with a further 2.4 million cancellations.