Clinical applicability of the study.
In total, 84% of scheduled surgical procedures were canceled and therefore will be rescheduled. A significant surplus of volume during the following months is therefore to be expected, requiring proper management. Also, we can anticipate that the postponement of these interventions may lead to spontaneous progression of the disease, and patients will probably present with more advanced disease stages or more complicated cases.
Thus, during a subsequent crisis, we should be able to select patients whose surgical intervention should be postponed at once, while maintaining significant surgical volume to avoid an excessive wave after the crisis.
In Paris Area, during April 2020, all the patients requiring ICU could be adequately treated. Paris Area hospitals were not overwhelmed, even if the government had at some stage to equip trains to transfer patients to other regions. It was thus feasible to maintain cancer related procedures. Most of the ENT cancer procedures can be performed without the need of a post-operative stay in ICU. The burden of this surgical activity on ICU beds is thus low in a context of pandemics. To minimize the loss of chance for the other patients should be a priority while facing a viral disease spread in the future.