SARS-CoV-2 Prevalence in Laparoscopic Surgery Filters. Analysis in Patients with Negative Oropharyngeal RT-qPCR in a Pandemic Context: A Cross-Sectional Study^†

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

I would like to congralute the authors for the wonderful article. The authors have demonstrated the  presence of the SARS-Cov-2 virus in surgical smoke in laparoscopy in patients with negative nazopharyngeal RT-PCR. The manuscript follows all standards and rigors of writing and reporting, the background and importance of the paper are clearly written, the materials and methods section is described in detail, results are easy to understand. The implications of the paper may steer the surgical practice of avoiding laparoscopy in favor of laparotomy in patients with COVID-19, towards the use of laparoscopy as smoke exuflation is controlled and can be contained through the use of filters. The other implication of the paper is that even in the presence of negative RT-PCR, the probability of viral transmission exists, especially in areas with high viral reproduction in the population

Author Response

We greatly appreciate the reviewer's comments regarding our manuscript because conducting this study during the pandemic in a tertiary hospital like ours has not been easy.  On many occasions, surgeons and doctors in general, put the opinions of the experts before the investigation of the real facts. The results of this work show that what really makes the difference between quality and safety in medical acts, once again, is research.
Thank you very much for allowing us to publish this work in your magazine. We hope that it will receive a great diffusion due to the important results that will change our safety parameters in the surgical field, making our operating rooms a much safer place for both the patient and the surgical teams.

Reviewer 2 Report

The article entitled “SARS-CoV-2 prevalence in laparoscopic surgery filters. Analysis in patients with negative oropharyngeal RT-qPCR in a pandemic context. A cross-sectional study” by Llueca Antoni et. al, evaluated the prevalence of the appearance of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material in the in-filter membrane of the smoke filter systems used in laparoscopic surgery. The sample size of this study is very limited to draw conclusion but since this study is relevant in the given scenario, hence the manuscript is recommended for publication.

Line 19: aimed is to ; remove is

Sentence 146 is confusing, rewrite.

Author Response

Thank you very much for reviewing our work. As you say, the sample is not very large, but given the results obtained, we prefer to communicate them to the scientific community as soon as posible. We really appreciate your comments because we believe that the results of our research have a great impact on daily practice in our institutions. But above all these results, make us realize that research is what can significantly change a pre-established way of working, not based on research but on subjective comments / opinions of experts.
Thank you once again for recommending the publication of our work.
The corrections that you mentioned in your comments have been made.