Incidence of COVID-19 in Pediatric Surgical Patients Among 3 US Children’s Hospitals

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to spread, with more than 4.6 million confirmed cases worldwide as of May 19, 2020. Children appear less susceptible, with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention reporting that children constitute only 2.16% of confirmed cases. 1 This may underestimate the true incidence of COVID-19 in children. Children are more likely to be asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic and thus less likely to be tested. The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of COVID-19 in pediatric patients presenting for surgery at 3 tertiary care children's hospitals across the United States. Methods | After universal preoperative screening for COVID-19 was instituted at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, and Seattle Children's Hospital in Seattle, Washington, all children younger than 19 years without known COVID-19 were tested. Data collection across all 3 hospitals began March 26, 2020, and ended April 22, 2020. All 3 hospitals use an in-house laboratory-developed reverse transcriptasepolymerase chain reaction assay to detect the severe acute