The SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID19) pandemic has placed extreme pressures on the Canadian Healthcare system. Many health care regions in Canada have cancelled or limited surgical and non-surgical interventions on patients to preserve healthcare resources for a predicted increase in COVID19 related hospital admissions. Also reduced health interventions may limit the risk of possible transmission of COVID19 to other patients and health care workers during this pandemic. The majority of institutions in Canada have developed their own operational mandates regarding access to surgical resources for patients suffering from Head and Neck Cancers during this pandemic. There is a large degree of individual practitioner judgement in deciding access to care as well as resource allocation during these challenging times. The Canadian Association of Head and Neck Surgical Oncology (CAHNSO) convened a task force to develop a set of guidelines based on the best current available evidence to help Head and Neck Surgical Oncologists and all practitioners involved in the care of these patients to help guide individual practice decisions. Main body: The majority of head and neck surgical oncology from initial diagnosis and work up to surgical treatment and then follow-up involves aerosol generating medical procedures (AGMPs) which inherently put head and neck surgeons and practitioners at high risk for transmission of COVID19. The aggressive nature of the majority of head and neck cancer negates the ability for deferring surgical treatment for a prolonged period of time. The included guidelines provide recommendations for resource allocation for patients, use of personal protective equipment for practitioners as well as recommendations for modification of practice during the current pandemic.# Introduction
The emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID19) as a novel virus causing severe respiratory illness was first described in December 2019 in Wuhan China. Since that time the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared COVID19 a pandemic (Mar 112,020) and health authorities have been mobilizing to accommodate a predicted surge in patients who require hospital and/or intensive care unit admission due to the direct effects of the virus . The reality of oncologic surgery is that any significant delay in time to treatment will often have a deleterious effect on survival and functional outcomes for the individual patient. This makes managing head and neck cancer patients in the pandemic era much more challenging due to resource limitations placed on the healthcare system by COVID19. In the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) pandemic, significant limitations were placed on surgical resource access in Ontario which did have a long term effect both on patient care as well as economic impact on the healthcare system once the pandemic passed and the backlog of surgical patients placed an increased strain on the system resources .
Head and neck surgical oncology is particularly challenging in the COVID19 era as all aspects of patient care from initial consultation, to surgical treatment, then post-treatment follow-up involve some degree of AGMPs in standard practice. The upper aerodigestive tract includes the nasal cavities, nasopharynx, oral cavity, oropharynx, hypopharynx, larynx, and trachea. This tract is a zone of intense COVID-19 viral replication . There is growing evidence that personnel who perform procedures in the upper aerodigestive tract, and in particular otolaryngologists Head and Neck Surgeons are at high risk of not only becoming exposed to COVID-19, but also developing severe illness from the virus . In an anecdotal report from Wuhan, it was noted that 14 personnel became may have been infected from a single endoscopic trans-sphenoidal pituitary case, including every OR staff member that was involved in the case . Europe has seen the same high infection rate of otolaryngologists, as reported by intensive care units across the region . There was recently a report of four otolaryngologists in the UK having been infected, two of which are intubated and in critical condition in the ICU, after having contracted COVID-19 from asymptomatic patients . Reliable reports have documented active transmission in asymptomatic cases . The increased risk of contracting COVID-19 in these procedures is thought to be due to the high viral load in the upper respiratory tract . Not only this, but persons who are exposed to high viral loads, such as during surgery as opposed to contracting the virus in the community, are thought to suffer more severe illness due to the release of cytokine storms in these settings .
This new and emerging information has led to several specialty societies and health authorities making recommendations on the use of PPE in procedures that are considered aerosol-generating (aerosol generating medical procedures or AGMPs), where standard contact and droplet precautions are not sufficient to protect against aerosolized viral particles. Whereas many of these recommendations vary in the details, all published criteria in the literature now support the use of N95 masks and associated aerosolized droplet precautions with all aerosol-generating medical procedures, regardless of COVID-19 testing. Many guidelines go much farther, recommending PAPRs for all such cases . The question of whether this should be enacted relies on three central issues:
- The expected rate of community viral burden in the province of practice. 2. The rate of asymptomatic infection.
- The reliability of COVID-19 testing in asymptomatic patients.
With respect to the first issue, we know that community transmission of COVID-19 is rising across Canada, and is now responsible for more than half of infections in the country . Projections vary widely, but according to the federal health minister, "between 30 and 70 percent of Canadians could become infected with coronavirus" . Countries that did not prepare for this scenario are now facing such consequences, including Italy which is battling a high rate of health worker infections and COVID-related deaths.
With respect to the second issue, emerging data shows that asymptomatic infections may be much more common than previously thought. During the Centers for Disease Control, (CDC) investigation of the Diamond Princess cruise ship outbreak, 46.5% of infected individuals were asymptomatic at the time of testing, and 17.9% of those infected never developed symptoms . This is in alignment with findings in children, which show that more than 15% of patients have asymptomatic infection . There is also ample data to show that active transmission of the virus occurs in asymptomatic persons .
Finally, current methods of testing for the COVID-19 virus are not validated for use in asymptomatic persons. Departments of Public Health and the CDC have repeatedly warned about the false negative (and false positive) rate of nasal swabs in asymptomatic patients . Although a positive COVID-19 swab in an asymptomatic patient can be useful, a negative swab cannot be relied on to be accurate.
The current COVID19 pandemic makes treating head and neck cancers even more challenging in terms of triaging patients and allocating limited surgical resources. Surgical oncologists worldwide have published recommendations about application and utilization of surgical resources in these challenging times . Head and neck surgeons have the difficult task of following chronically ill patients while at the same time mitigating the risk of person to person contact . In doing so, head and neck cancer survivors may be impacted negatively in terms of quality of life as well as disease recurrence detection . Further, those with tracheostomies or laryngeal stomas are at increased risk of transmission and spread of COVID-19 .
In summary, we can conclude and/or infer the following from the available data: in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. D. Goldstein -a. substantial contributions to conception and design an analysis and interpretation of data; b. revising the article critically for important intellectual content; c. final approval of the version to be submitted for publication, and d. agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. J. Yoo -a. substantial contributions to conception and design an analysis and interpretation of data; b. revising the article critically for important intellectual content; c. final approval of the version to be submitted for publication, and d. agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Canadian Association of Head and Neck Surgical Oncology -a. substantial contributions to conception and design an analysis and interpretation of data; b. drafting the article and revising it critically for important intellectual content; c. final approval of the version to be submitted for publication, and d. agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.