SARS-CoV-2 in Postoperative Pediatric Patients

Description of the Study:

• Title: SARS-CoV-2 Seroconversion During the Postoperative Period in Pediatric Patients.
• Principal Investigator: César García Fontecha.
• Co-Investigators: Anna Canalias Bages, Xavier Tarrado Castellarnaru and Oliver Haag Heinz.
• Centers of implementation: Hospital Sant Joan de Déu.
• Study Population: Patients (0-18 years old, n = 1000) undergoing surgery in Hospital Sant Joan de Déu who have had a negative PCR for SARS-CoV-2 48 hours before surgery. In addition, patients who have undergone another surgery in the month before the study will be excluded.
• Design: Observational study.

Objectives of the Study:

Principal Objective: Determine the seroconversion rate in the pediatric population undergoing surgery.

Secondary Objectives:
(1) To show the clinical and seroconversion differences to the adult population.
(2) To elucidate whether there are changes in the postoperative clinical course of the pediatric population depending on whether they develop COVID-19 infection after the surgical procedure.

More about this Study:

Added value: Undergoing surgery may increase a person’s susceptibility to COVID-19 as well as accelerating and exacerbating its evolution. However, the available data is not conclusive and the available studies are only based on adults. Hence, we believe to perform such a study on a pediatric postoperative population is highly necessary to understand the impact of surgery on a COVID-19 infection.

Based on the seropositive conversion rate in the general population at the time of the study (1.5%), we expect to obtain about 15 patients who become positive after surgery from a sample of 1000 patients. We will take nasal swabs and blood samples from all the patients in the study. Nevertheless, the seroconversion rate in children is unknown and may be lower than that of the general population.

Sant Joan de Déu: It is a university hospital specialising in the fields of paediatrics, gynaecology, and obstetrics, which has a long history of more than 150 years, during which it has undergone many transformations and changes due to the need to adapt both to the social and health conditions of the time and to technological advances and the evolution of health care.

Kids Corona: The Kids Corona platform, which the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu launched last April continues to offer answers to better understand the incidence, impact, and transmission capacity of COVID-19 in children and pregnant women. In other words, the platform gathers different Pediatrics studies related to COVID-19 to improve the treatment, outcome, and transmission, for instance at school such as in this study, of the pediatric population.

Other Kids Corona Projects: “Susceptibility to COVID-19 in pediatric age: Study of cases and household contacts“, “Identifying SARS-CoV-2 in breast milk as a potential means of vertical transmission“, “Susceptibility to COVID-19 in pediatric age: Study of cases in school-like environments” and “Characterization of COVID-19 in the Pediatric Population: Study of Sero-surveillance and of Immunological and Biochemical Biomarkers of Disease Severity”