UAE Covid vaccine: Get jabs before surgeries, say docs

Dubai - Getting jab before the surgery could help avoid post-operative deaths linked to virus, study finds.

A team of over 40 experts from 13 centres across the UAE have revealed that patients waiting for elective surgery should get Covid-19 vaccines ahead of the general population.

The team of experts were part of one of the largest study conducted on patients undergoing surgery that showed that between 0.6 per cent and 1.6 per cent of patients develop Covid-19 infection after elective surgery.

Getting vaccinated before the surgery could potentially help avoid thousands of post-operative deaths linked to the virus, according to a new study funded by the National Institute for Health Research, UK.

According to the study, patients who develop Covid-19 infection are at between four - and eight-fold increased risk of death in the 30 days following surgery. For example, if patients aged 70 years and over undergoing cancer surgery would usually have a 2.8 per cent mortality rate, this increases to 18.6 per cent if they develop Covid-19 infection.

The COVIDSurg Collaborative international team of researchers, led by experts at the University of Birmingham, has published its findings in the British Journal of Surgery and the European Journal of Surgery, after studying data for 141,582 patients from across 1,667 hospitals in 116 countries - including Australia, Brazil, China, India, UAE, UK and USA - creating the world’s largest ever international study on surgery.

The UAE team was headed by Dr Sattar Alshryda, paediatric orthopaedic surgeon at Al Jalila Children’s Specialty Hospital; and Dr Hayder Al Saadi, trauma and spine surgeon at Rashid Hospital.

Calling it a timely study, Dr Sattar Alshryda explained: “The study came at the right time as the UAE government has recently announced free Covid-19 vaccinations for all residents if 16 or older. The recommendation of the study is available for patients should they wish to be vaccinated before surgery.”

Dr Hayder Al Saadi added: “This collaboration brought motivated colleagues from across the UAE with various skills to contribute to this landmark study. This group of experts have decided to build on this collaboration under a new name ‘United Arab Emirates Trauma and Orthopaedic Research Champions (U-TORCH). The purpose is to foster a nationwide, high quality research across the UAE.”

Based on the high risks that surgical patients face, scientists calculate that vaccination of surgical patients is more likely to prevent Covid-19 related deaths than vaccines given to the population at large – particularly among the over-70s and those undergoing surgery for cancer. For example, whereas 1,840 people aged 70 years and over in the general population need to be vaccinated to save one life over one year, this figure is only 351 in patients aged 70 years and over having cancer surgery.