A global study has found elective surgery patients who also have Covid-19 are more likely to die after an operation, and argues they should have priority for vaccination.
The Covid-19 vaccine benefits elective surgery patients more than the general population in all age groups. For New Zealand, where Covid-19 is low, vaccination before surgery is not currently necessary, Dr Deborah Wright says. Photo: 123RF
The research, involving more than 140,000 patients from 116 countries, suggests a preoperative vaccine is particularly important for older patients.
Project lead Dr Deborah Wright, senior lecturer at Otago University's surgical sciences department, said a vaccine was especially beneficial in cancer surgery.
"Patients who have surgery and also have Covid-19 at the time of surgery, or shortly after, have a much higher rate of dying than patients having the same surgery without Covid-19 infection.
"The main cause of that increased mortality is increased lung complications.
"It will be the combination of the need to overcome the operation itself and then on top of that, this infection."
"Even in low Covid-19 environments ... the vaccine disproportionately benefits patients who are having surgery relative to the general population.
However it was not necessary at present for patients in New Zealand to have to have a pre-surgery vaccination, she said.
"We're not suggesting people in this situation should be prioritised, for example, ahead of people working at the border."
Wright said the data was "another piece in the puzzle" as the Ministry of Health designed its vaccination strategy.
The benefit was across all age groups, but was highest by a significant margin for those over 70.
It was important for all types of elective surgery - planned operations where people stayed overnight in hospital - but was greatest for those having cancer surgery.
"This kind of work speaks not only to the New Zealand environment but also to global recovery from Covid-19," she said.
The findings of the COVIDSurg Collaborative international team of researchers, coordinated from the Global Health Research Unit on Surgery at the University of Birmingham in England, have been published in the British Journal of Surgery.
The research studied data of 141,582 patients from across 1667 hospitals in 116 countries including Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, China, India, UAE, Britain and the United States. In New Zealand, data of 1000 patients formed part of the study, Wright said.
