The new disease COVID-19 pandemic has completely modified our lifestyle, changing our personal habits and daily activities and strongly our professional activity. Following World Health Organization (WHO) and health care authorities around the World recommendations, all elective surgeries from benign diagnose procedures must be postponed and imperatively continue working on emergent and oncological urgent pathologies. Surgical elective treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is not considered as a priority. During BPH endoscopic surgeries, urine and blood are mixed with the irrigation liquid implying a risk of viral presence. Furthermore, a steam and smoke bubble is being accumulated inside the bladder implying the risk of splashing and aerosols. The risks of other viral infections have been identified during endourological procedures and they are related to splashing events. Several studies observed 33-100% of splashing on goggles. All BPH endoscopic procedures must be postponed. In case of complete urinary obstruction, this event can be adequately treated by urethral or suprapubic catheter under local anesthesia. As soon as local COVID-19 prevalence decreases, endourological procedures could be restarted. As protocols are being validating around the World to redeem elective surgeries, a symptomatic obstructed patient could be operated knowing his COVID-19 status with a molecular PCR, a cleaned epidemiological interview with a normal preoperative protocol. If patient is COVID-19+, surgery must be delayed until complete recovery, because mortality could increase as Lei from Wuhan describes. Informed consent must include risks of complications related to COVID-19 disease. Surgery must be performed by an experienced surgeon in order to avoid increase of operating time and risks of complications. Surgical approach of BPH must be considered depending on availability of disposable material, infrastructure, and the epidemiological COVID-19 status of your area. The main aim is patients and healthcare staff safety.
International braz j urol : official journal of the Brazilian Society of Urology. 2020 Jun 10 [Epub ahead of print]
Alexis M Alva Pinto, Mariano Sebastián González
Department of Urology, Clínica Delgado, Lima, Peru., Department of Urology, Hospital Italiano, Buenos Aires, Argentina.