Carlos O. Aguilar-GarduñoJosé C. Aguilar-GarduñoAna K. Barreto-RodríguezVanessa Ortíz-HigaredaEduardo Ferat‐OsorioJosé Luis Martínez‐Ordaz2026-03-222026-03-22202310.24875/cirue.m20000248https://doi.org/10.24875/cirue.m20000248https://andeanlibrary.org/handle/123456789/73446Introduction:The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a reorganization of hospital and general surgery departments worldwide to assure the best medical and surgical treatment of patients with this disease and protection of the health-related personnel.Some of them will require surgical treatment either elective or urgent.Objective: Report the initial experience in the management of patients with COVID-19 in a third level hospital.Material and Methods: A review of the surgical protocols, personal protection equipment used by the surgical teams, and results of the treatment of forty-two patients submitted to surgery.Results: For four months (April-July 2020) forty-two patients with suspicion or confirmed infection of SARS-CoV2 underwent surgical treatment.The most common surgery was tracheostomy in 16 patients (38%) followed by exploratory laparotomy in 8 patients (19%).The median postoperative stay was 17 days, and the thirty-day postoperative mortality rate was 26%.Conclusions: Reorganization of the general surgery department and the hospital, favors adequate management and treatment of patients with COVID-19 and protection to the health-related personnel.Due to the usual co-existence of comorbidities and pulmonary complications the postoperative mortality of these patients is high.enCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)2019-20 coronavirus outbreakMedicineGeneral surgeryarticle