Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Screening for COVID-19 in Asymptomatic Preoperative Orthopedic Patients in a General Hospital in Kanagawa, Japan

The global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused several million infections and hundreds of thousands of deaths A large number of healthcare workers have died as a result of infection with this virus Therefore, elective surgery was markedly reduced or stopped in our hospital's orthopedic department The detection of asymptomatic COVID-19-positive patients became key to reducing the infection risk to physicians and staff to allow orthopedic surgery to be performed A total of 21 patients were scheduled to undergo orthopedic surgery, including elective surgery, in Shonantobu General Hospital, Chigasaki City, Kanagawa, Japan All 21 patients gave permission to undergo loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) screening the day before surgery None of the 21 patients we tested was positive for COVID-19 All patients remained asymptomatic during the two to four weeks of postoperative follow-up No physicians or medical staff developed COVID-19 symptoms This was a very small study in a city with a relatively low incidence of COVID-19 We found that LAMP screening was accurate, in terms of its negative predictive value Larger studies are needed