Minimally Invasive Surgery and the Novel Coronavirus Outbreak: Lessons Learned in China and Italy

“So all a man could win in the conflict between plague and life was knowledge and memories.” Albert Camus French writer and philosopher in “The Plague” 1947. As elective operations are being cancelled, and surgeons are called upon to perform only emergency or carcinological surgery, the precautions to take when operating on patients who are potentially or proven COVID-19 positive are of utmost importance. The novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak hit China in the beginning of December 2019, and ignited the headlines a few days later. Unexpected, unprecedented, and radical modifications have profoundly shaken the world since then. The economic shutdown in China cleared the map of China viewed from the sky, the…