Method
In this cross sectional study, the medical files of 503 patients undergoing cardiovascular surgery (January 21, 2020 - April 18, 2020) at Tehran Heart Center (THC) 9, a cardiac tertiary center, affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences, were evaluated, retrospectively. Among these individuals, 64 patients (12.7%) had been diagnosed as COVID-19 cases after the surgery by Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR [Nanjing Vazyme Medical Technology Co., Ltd]) and chest computed tomography (CT) scan following getting symptomatic or detection of abnormality in laboratory results. However, the surgery was canceled before induction of the anesthesia in one of these patients who was candidate for valve surgery, because the operation team got suspected to COVID-19 due to his abnormal complete blood count (CBC) findings. Hence this patient was excluded from the study. The patients’ demographic information, cardiovascular risk factor, past medical history, laboratory data, surgery type, computed tomography (CT) scan findings, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and survival status were documented.
The study protocol was approved by local review board and ethical committee of the hospital and all authors adhered to Helsinki’s statement.