Early outcomes and complications following cardiac surgery in patients testing positive for coronavirus disease 2019: An international cohort study

The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndromecoronavirus-2, the cause of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in December 2019 represented a global emergency accounting for more than 2.5 million deaths worldwide.1 It has had an unprecedented influence on cardiac surgery internationally, resulting in cautious delivery of surgery and restructuring of services.2 Understanding the influence of COVID-19 on patients after cardiac surgery is based on assumptions from other surgical specialties and single-center studies. The COVIDSurg Collaborative conducted a multicenter cohort study, including 1128 patients, across 235 hospitals, from 24 countries demonstrating perioperative COVID-19 infection…