Should You Consider Elective Surgery During COVID? New Study Raises Concerns

Hey everybody, what's going on? Dr. Jeff Langmaid with the evidence based chiropractor here. And if you have patients that have had elective surgeries postponed or canceled, that's probably a good idea. We're going to go through quickly a paper that I talked about yesterday with Dr. Chris Santeno, a medical doctor out of Broomfield, Colorado, that has really taken the surgical world and non surgical world by storm. This paper published in the Lancet and it was done in China, it has a small sample size, but. But what this paper found was that 100% of the individuals who went into this hospital in Wuhan, China, developed COVID 19 as a result or after the surgery. And over 20% of those individuals ended up passing away. This has ramifications well beyond Wuhan, well beyond China, and right back to where you're practicing today. Thankfully, many elective surgeries have been canceled over the past four to six weeks. But it looks as though things are starting to open up. And I'm going to tell you and let you know these are important bits of information to share. Now, again, this study had a small sample size, so we don't want to extrapolate it too large. But what it does tell us is there are inherent risks, right? There are inherent risks and complications with any surgical procedure. I know at some of the surgery centers I used to work at, that risk rate or complication rate could have been up to 20% or more. It depends on exactly how you're calculating it, but it's well within the norms to say 5% is easy, 20%, depending upon what you're included. Now, what we see with COVID 19 and pneumonia is clearly an unbelievably sharp rise in those risk factors. So this is very, very important as you continue to communicate and coordinate care with your patients. And again, the last month or so, many elective surgeries, ambulatory surgery centers or ASCs, have had procedures completely wiped from their books. It's a great opportunity for you to get out there and showcase who you are and what you do specifically relative to elective surgeries. Right. Emergencies, that small section of individuals who are emergency care, that's something altogether different. But elective surgeries for low back issues, for degenerative changes, for disc herniations. We, we've seen quite often in the literature that chiropractic care and conservative measures absolutely should be explored first. And those that fail, those conservative measures actually have great surgical results. But what we see with hundreds of thousands of surgical interventions specifically around the spine each and every year is that many people haven't exhausted conservative care. 90% of people having low back and spinal issues, only 15% or less exhausting chiropractic or even trying chiropractic care. There's a great divide and a great opportunity to get out there and communicate who you are and what you do. And the fact that elective surgeries have been canceled is really, you know, a very good thing for you as a chiropractor because it gives you the opportunity to get out there and provide a different opportunity, a new opportunity for those patients that might have been looking forward to that surgery. That pain hasn't disappeared just because the surgery got canceled or postponed. And you might be able to save them ultimately from having that surgery. But you have to be out there communicating who you are and what you do. And the research like this, I'm going to drop a link for it down below after I hop off. Research like this shows us that there may be a big caution or a big pause button pressed before elective surgeries and ambulatory surgery centers are really doing the surgical volumes that they were before. This could take weeks, it could take months. And there are many surgeons out there that maybe even were looking forward to resuming surgery that are now saying, wow. With this study, which is really the first one to come out, showcasing the potential risks, the potential dangers, there's a lot of questions going on. Again, testing is not as widely available as it could or should be as we sit here today. And even that testing, I was speaking with Dr. Santano yesterday, really the best way to do it is a multi step approach. And that is sort of beyond my area of expertise, for sure. But, but the bottom line is elective surgeries for spinal issues in this day and age should be scrutinized very, very carefully. Not only from the medical providers who are performing them, should be really looking at comorbidities, risk factors, and absolutely ensuring, even if they're within the right to do those surgeries in their state, they should absolutely be ensuring that it is the safest and best option for their patients. There's no question about that. And I think a lot of good surgeons are thinking that way. And they're gonna be very, very careful as they begin to do procedures in their hospitals, in their ASCs or wherever it may be. And again, as a chiropractor, I think it's important for us to guide and direct our patients in the best manner that we can. But also, this is an opportunity again to get out there and showcase who you are and what you do and potentially save dozens, hundreds and thousands as a combined, you know, combined chiropractors, we could potentially impact thousands of individuals and save thousands of people from having surgical intervention that might get well without having those surgeries. So I'm gonna drop this link down below. This is a pretty wild and crazy paper, so feel free to check it out Again, small sample size. It was done in Wuhan, China in a hospital based setting with surgeries that span the gamut. But when we see things like 100% rates of individuals contracting or coming down with COVID pneumonia and then we see over 20% of those individuals passing away in, it's a stark reminder of the complications and risk factors associated with surgery. And it should be a stark reminder and wake up call for us to say, gosh, as the leaders in conservative care, as what research shows to be potentially the most effective, the most efficient way to get out there and take care of spine and musculoskeletal issues, the onus is on us to tell our story, to make sure that we are getting through and communicating in the best way possible because it just may save a life. So thanks for tuning in. Any questions or comments, feel free to leave them down below and I'll drop that paper. Make it a great day and I'll talk to you soon. Bye bye.

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