COVID 19 PANDEMİSİ SIRASINDA GENEL CERRAHİ UYGULAMALARINA YAKLAŞIM

In December 2019, pneumonia cases with unknown cause occurred in Wuhan City, China's Hubei Province. As a result of their studies, Chinese scientists revealed that the agent causing pneumonia in these patients was 'severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; previously known as 2019-nCoV)'. The disease was introduced in the literature in February 2020 as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). In the following times, the disease spread rapidly, and on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared pandemic. COVID-19 does not currently have an antiviral treatment available, and treatment is focused on respiratory support. The high level of contagiousness and its characterization with pneumonia that can be mortal have made COVID-19 a public health problem that should be concerned beyond being just an infectious pandemic. Proper management of patients within the surgical indication during pandemic is important both to prevent emergency-related mortality and to manage cancer patients correctly in the process. In this study, we tried to review the information in the literature about how general surgical clinical practices should be carried out during the pandemic process. In the light of this information, we emphasized the importance of protecting healthcare workers, usage of personal protective equipment, management of surgical emergencies and cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.