Multicentre prospective study of COVID-19 transmission following outpatient GI endoscopy in the UK
The COVID-19 pandemic has severely curtailed the practice of endoscopy (as an exemplar for outpatient diagnostic procedures) worldwide. Restart and recovery processes will be influenced by the need to protect patients and staff from disease transmission, but data on the risk of COVID-19 transmission...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
BMJ Publishing Group
2020
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| _version_ | 1797053054357340160 |
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| author | Hayee, B The SCOTS project group East, J Rees, CJ Penman, I |
| author_facet | Hayee, B The SCOTS project group East, J Rees, CJ Penman, I |
| author_sort | Hayee, B |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | The COVID-19 pandemic has severely curtailed the practice of endoscopy (as an exemplar for outpatient diagnostic procedures) worldwide. Restart and recovery processes will be influenced by the need to protect patients and staff from disease transmission, but data on the risk of COVID-19 transmission after an endoscopy are sparse. This is of particular importance in later pandemic phases when the risk of harm from delayed or missed significant diagnoses is likely to far outweigh the risk of infection. The British Society of Gastroenterology guidance for restarting endoscopy included the stratification of diagnostic procedures according to aerosol generation or assessment of infectious risk as well as pragmatic guidance on the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). We sought to document the risk of COVID-19 transmission after endoscopy in this ‘COVID-minimised’ environment. Prospective data were collected from 18 UK centres for n=6208 procedures. Pre-endoscopy, 3 of 2611 (0.11%; 95% CI 0.00%–0.33%) asymptomatic patients tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on nasopharyngeal swab. Based on follow-up telephone symptom screening of patients at 7 and 14 days, no cases of COVID-19 were detected by any centre after endoscopy in either patients or staff. Although these data cannot determine the relative contribution of each component of a COVID-minimised pathway, they provide clear support for such an approach. The rational use of PPE and infection control policies should be continued and will aid in planning for outpatient diagnostics in the COVID-19 recovery phase. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T18:38:44Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:0c2cb2bc-a73d-486f-bab9-2c1e905ebf6e |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T18:38:44Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:0c2cb2bc-a73d-486f-bab9-2c1e905ebf6e2022-03-26T09:33:30ZMulticentre prospective study of COVID-19 transmission following outpatient GI endoscopy in the UKJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:0c2cb2bc-a73d-486f-bab9-2c1e905ebf6eEnglishSymplectic ElementsBMJ Publishing Group2020Hayee, BThe SCOTS project groupEast, JRees, CJPenman, IThe COVID-19 pandemic has severely curtailed the practice of endoscopy (as an exemplar for outpatient diagnostic procedures) worldwide. Restart and recovery processes will be influenced by the need to protect patients and staff from disease transmission, but data on the risk of COVID-19 transmission after an endoscopy are sparse. This is of particular importance in later pandemic phases when the risk of harm from delayed or missed significant diagnoses is likely to far outweigh the risk of infection. The British Society of Gastroenterology guidance for restarting endoscopy included the stratification of diagnostic procedures according to aerosol generation or assessment of infectious risk as well as pragmatic guidance on the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). We sought to document the risk of COVID-19 transmission after endoscopy in this ‘COVID-minimised’ environment. Prospective data were collected from 18 UK centres for n=6208 procedures. Pre-endoscopy, 3 of 2611 (0.11%; 95% CI 0.00%–0.33%) asymptomatic patients tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on nasopharyngeal swab. Based on follow-up telephone symptom screening of patients at 7 and 14 days, no cases of COVID-19 were detected by any centre after endoscopy in either patients or staff. Although these data cannot determine the relative contribution of each component of a COVID-minimised pathway, they provide clear support for such an approach. The rational use of PPE and infection control policies should be continued and will aid in planning for outpatient diagnostics in the COVID-19 recovery phase. |
| spellingShingle | Hayee, B The SCOTS project group East, J Rees, CJ Penman, I Multicentre prospective study of COVID-19 transmission following outpatient GI endoscopy in the UK |
| title | Multicentre prospective study of COVID-19 transmission following outpatient GI endoscopy in the UK |
| title_full | Multicentre prospective study of COVID-19 transmission following outpatient GI endoscopy in the UK |
| title_fullStr | Multicentre prospective study of COVID-19 transmission following outpatient GI endoscopy in the UK |
| title_full_unstemmed | Multicentre prospective study of COVID-19 transmission following outpatient GI endoscopy in the UK |
| title_short | Multicentre prospective study of COVID-19 transmission following outpatient GI endoscopy in the UK |
| title_sort | multicentre prospective study of covid 19 transmission following outpatient gi endoscopy in the uk |
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