Safety of emergency ent procedures during COVID-19 pandemic

Aims The aim of this study is to assess the safety of performing various emergency ENT procedures in a single institution during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impacts on patients and healthcare workers that potentially would have risen from aerosol generating procedures. Methods We retrospectively reviewed patients that underwent any ENT procedure in the ENT Casualty department of South Infirmary University Hospital Cork, from the month of December 2019 until April 2020. Patients were contacted via telephone call and symptoms of COVID-19 were enquire as per standard questionnaire. Two time periods were defined; Period 1 from 1^st December 2019 to 28^th February 2020 and Period 2 from 29^th February to 23^rd April 2020. Results 332 patients were included in this study. 226 (80.1%) patients attended in Period 1 and 66 (19.9%) attended in Period 2. In Period 1, 12 (4.5%) patients reported COVID-19 symptoms within 2 weeks of attending and 5 (7.6%) patients reported symptoms in Period 2 of which, 2 of those underwent swabs. Both swabs were negative. None of the clinical staff developed COVID-19 during the study. Conclusion With appropriate PPE and social distancing measures, ENT Casualty services were safe to proceed during the COVID-19 pandemic.