PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Jonathan Bourget-Murray
AU  - Bryan J Heard
AU  - Rohit Bansal
AU  - Andrew S Johnson
AU  - James Powell
TI  - Postoperative fever in the time of COVID-19
AID  - 10.1503/cjs.004720
DP  - 2020 Jun 01
TA  - Canadian Journal of Surgery
PG  - E231--E232
VI  - 63
IP  - 3
4099  - http://canjsurg.ca/content/63/3/E231.short
4100  - http://canjsurg.ca/content/63/3/E231.full
SO  - CAN J SURG2020 Jun 01; 63
AB  - Postoperative fever is common following orthopedic trauma surgery. As the prevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection increases in the community, migration into the acute care hospital setting intensifies, creating confusion when fever develops postoperatively. The transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 make it difficult to adequately gauge and pinpoint risk groups with questionnaires at the time of hospital admission. This is particularly problematic when asymptomatic or presymptomatic patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 require urgent surgery and cannot be screened effectively. One approach is to treat every patient as though they were SARS-CoV-2-positive in preparation for surgery, but doing so could exacerbate shortages of personal protective equipment and staffing limitations. Uncertainty regarding the etiology of postoperative fever could be significantly reduced by universal SARS-CoV-2 testing of all surgical patients at the time of hospital admission in addition to routine screening, but testing capacity and a rapid turnaround time would be required.