Background
COVID-19 pandemic has changed many aspects of our lives in the past few months. This disease has started from Hubei provenience of China in 2019, December and eventually it became a global pandemic by March 2020 involving more than 214 countries1. During the time of drafting (24/04/2020) as per the global data, around 27 million people have been tested positive, while more than 188,000 succumbed to the disease2. This is primarily a respiratory tract infection transmitted by human to human contact, respiratory droplets and aerosols.3
The epidemiology of head and neck cancer varies among geographical regions, worldwide yearly more than 650,000 cases of head and neck cancers are detected and 330,000 deaths are attributed to it4. Asia has around 57 % of the global burden of head and neck cancer patients as well as the maximum number of deaths5. It was projected that by year2020, South-east Asia will have a steep increase (75%) in the number of cancer deaths.6
Due to the high rate of infectivity, Health care workers are faced with a daunting task, while performing duty in the time this pandemic. Recently, some recommendations and protocols have been put forward by various researchers to deal with practices in head and neck surgeries, plastic surgery but points in post-cancer reconstruction need to be discussed.7,8 this article aims to discuss available evidence and provide key suggestions, specifically for head and neck onco-reconstruction and microvascular surgery, as well as offer guidelines to enhance infection control, patient safety, and resource management. Do we compromise the quality of reconstruction or adopt certain changes to suit the present scenario?