The global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused several million infections and hundreds of thousands of deaths. A large number of healthcare workers have died as a result of infection with this virus. Therefore, elective surgery was markedly reduced or stopped in our hospital’s orthopedic department. The detection of asymptomatic COVID-19-positive patients became key to reducing the infection risk to physicians and staff to allow orthopedic surgery to be performed. A total of 21 patients were scheduled to undergo orthopedic surgery, including elective surgery, in Shonantobu General Hospital, Chigasaki City, Kanagawa, Japan. All 21 patients gave permission to undergo loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) screening the day before surgery. None of the 21 patients we tested was positive for COVID-19. All patients remained asymptomatic during the two to four weeks of postoperative follow-up. No physicians or medical staff developed COVID-19 symptoms. This was a very small study in a city with a relatively low incidence of COVID-19. We found that LAMP screening was accurate, in terms of its negative predictive value. Larger studies are needed.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, orthopedic surgery, 【초록키워드】 coronavirus disease, pandemic, Infection, virus, healthcare worker, Asymptomatic, Patient, Japan, isothermal amplification, Follow-up, infection risk, COVID-19 symptoms, deaths, Negative predictive value, Elective surgery, orthopedic, city, physician, positive, tested, performed, caused, died, remained, reduced, undergo, postoperative, reducing, incidence of COVID-19, 【제목키워드】 Screening, Japan, preoperative,