GET Journal of Biosecurity and One Health

As the result of multiple signs and symptoms, and complications observed among survivors of the Ebola virus disease (EVD), there is an assumption that survivors might experience perturbations within their clotting parameters. This may eventually lead to increased bleeding time, predisposing them to increased risk for surgical complications. This study aimed to comparatively review specific intra-operative parameters such as uterine fibroids and polyps among a number of EVD survivors and non survivors undergoing elective gynecologic surgeries at Redemption Hospital, a tertiary specialized referral hospital located within one of the EVD hotspots, in Liberia from January to October 2016. A case-control study was conducted wherein cases were referred from the Partnership for Research on Vaccines and Infectious Diseases in Liberia (PREVAIL), an EVD clinical trial platform, while controls were sampled from the general patient population, at Redemption Hospital. The controls were matched based on age, employment status and parity. All surgeries were performed by single surgeon based on a surgical checklist that included designated intra- and post-operative parameters. Statistical analysis such as counts, percentiles, confidence intervals and relative risks were performed to assess the differences between the cases and controls, respectively. Survivors were between the ages of 42 years and 44 years for controls with an average interval between discharge from the Ebola Treatment Unit (ETU) and surgical intervention of greater than one year. The median duration of surgical procedure was 60 minutes and blood loss of 250 ml in both groups. Besides the relative risks (RR) of receiving antibiotics for more than 3 days of 1.5 (85.7% vs. 57.1%) and hospitalization of more than 7 days of 0.25 (14% vs. 57%) for survivors as compared to controls, most of the indicators were not significantly different. The findings revealed that EVD survivors who present with benign tumors such as uterine fibroids, polyps, or adenomyosis, requiring elective uterine surgery such as myomectomy and/or hysterectomy are generally not at increased risk of surgical complications because most of the indicators (hospitalization, blood loss, antibiotics, etc.) were not significantly different between the two groups. Findings from this study may potentially revise the approaches used by gynecologists and general surgeons during encounters and/or interventions with patient(s) concerning emerging infectious diseases (EIDs).