Table 1.
Reasons that patients did not received planned surgery
| All patients | |
|---|---|
| COVID-19 related | |
| Multidisciplinary team decision to delay surgery due to patient risk during COVID-19 | 1456 (72·8%) |
| Change to alternative treatment modality because of COVID-19 | 533 (26·6%) |
| Patient choice to avoid surgery during COVID-19 pandemic | 460 (23·0%) |
| Ongoing neoadjuvant therapy (COVID decision) | 378 (18·9%) |
| No bed, critical care bed, or operating room space available due to COVID-19 | 299 (14·9%) |
| Change of recommendations in society guidelines related to COVID-19 | 220 (11·0%) |
| Patient unable to travel to hospital related to COVID-19 | 140 (7·0%) |
| Collateral impact on supporting services causing delay | 24 (1·2%) |
| Patient delayed due to SARS-CoV-2 infection | 23 (1·1%) |
| Died of COVID-19 while waiting for surgery | 14 (0·6%) |
| Total | 2001 (100·0%) |
| Non-COVID-19 related | |
| Progression to unresectable disease | 179 (8·9%) |
| Delay due to other unrelated medical or surgical condition | 59 (2·9%) |
| Died unrelated to COVID-19 while waiting for surgery | 34 (1·7%) |
| Patient unable to afford surgery | 24 (1·2%) |
| Patient choice to avoid surgery unrelated to COVID-19 | 35 (1·7%) |
| Total | 306 (15·3%) |
We anticipated that decisions to delay or cancel surgery during COVID-19 would be complex. Therefore, selecting more than one reason for non-operation during the follow-up window for each patient was permitted. One patient could have both one or more COVID-19-related and non-COVID-19-related reasons selected. Where it was unclear whether a reason was directly COVID-related (eg, disease progression) this was classified as not COVID-19-related. Two patients (0·1%) had no reasons given for non-operation during the follow-up window selected (missing data). Proportions are therefore expressed as a percentage of 2001 non-operated patients and with data available.