Descriptive Study Regarding Ambulant Screening During COVID-19 Pandemia

The exact prevalence of COVID-19 is unknown. Due to the relatively high number of diagnosed,
symptomatic infections despite a strict policy, we expect a high prevalence of COVID 19
throughout the entire population. The risk that an asymptomatic carrier who is admitted to
the hospital for a (semi)urgent surgery, treatment of investigation transfers the virus to
the hospital staff is very high, and vice versa. This risk is even higher during surgery,
where intubation is necessary. Therefore we would like to pre-screen all patients ambulantly
on the presence of COVID 19 since there is no consensus for screening at the moment. The
golden standard is the SARS CoV-2 PCR on the nasopharyngeal sample together with a CT scan of
the lungs. Patients in which a bloodsample is taken as standard of care procedure in this
ambulant screening will be asked to give more blood for further investigation.

On top of this standard of care screening, we will perform a questionnaire at the
pre-operative visit which evaluates the possible occurence of certain symptoms in the last 2
weeks. These symptoms are fever, anorexia, cough, diarrhea, sneezing, vomiting, dyspnea,
headache, rhinorrhea, loss of smell, muscle pain, sputum, sore throat and fatigue. Patients
were also asked if one of their housemates are affected by these symptoms. Furthermore, 2
weeks after surgery, patient will be contacted to phone in order to fill the same
questionnaire.