Cardiac surgery in patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection: Early experience

The novel coronavirus, now termed SARS-CoV-2, has caused a significant global impact in the space of 4 months. Almost all elective cardiac surgical operations have been postponed in order to reduce transmission and to allocate resources adequately. Urgent and emergency cardiac surgery is still taking place during the pandemic. The decision to operate in urgent patients with active/recent COVID-19 infection is difficult to make, particularly as it is still an unknown disease entity in the setting of emergent cardiac surgery. We present a case series of three patients who underwent urgent cardiac surgery and who have had recent or active COVID-19 infection.