2021 Volume 57 Issue 5 Pages 839-843
Purpose: Our hospital is one of the hospitals that had a COVID-19 infection cluster. Since then, we have been performing loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) as a SARS-CoV-2 screening test for all hospitalized patients to prevent recurrence. We retrospectively reviewed the screening results of pediatric surgical patients and discussed the significance of LAMP on admission.
Methods: Medical records of pediatric surgical inpatients from April 28 to November 30, 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients with scheduled admission were classified into Group A, and patients admitted on an emergency basis were classified into Group B. Patients who already had tracheostomy and were switched to a cuffed tracheostomy tube to prevent aerosol generation were designated as Group C. LAMP was performed in all the patients.
Results: There were 57 patients in Group A, 30 patients in Group B, and 2 patients in Group C. No airway symptoms or household transmission was observed in all the patients. One patient in Group C, who was a child with severe motor and intellectual disabilities (SMID), was found to be positive for SARS-CoV-2 by LAMP, and he complained of nausea. A LAMP retest and RT-PCR showed negative results.
Conclusion: This SARS-CoV-2-positive case determined by LAMP was found to be a false positive. However, this case suggests that we need to be careful in the treatment of children with SMID because it is difficult to assess their symptoms. We also thought that routine LAMP might be an excessive test for pediatric surgical patients without airway symptoms or household transmission.
