Background: COVID-19 pandemic presented an unexpected challenge for the surgical community in general and Minimally
Invasive Surgery (MIS) specialists in particular. This document aims to summarize recent evidence and experts’ opinion and
formulate recommendations to guide the surgical community on how to best organize the recovery plan for surgical activity
across diferent sub-specialities after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: Recommendations were developed through a Delphi process for establishment of expert consensus. Domain
topics were formulated and subsequently subdivided into questions pertinent to diferent surgical specialities following the
COVID-19 crisis. Sixty-fve experts from 24 countries, representing the entire EAES board, were invited. Fifty clinicians
and six engineers accepted the invitation and drafted statements based on specifc key questions. Anonymous voting on the
statements was performed until consensus was achieved, defned by at least 70% agreement.
Results: A total of 92 consensus statements were formulated with regard to safe resumption of surgery across eight domains,
addressing general surgery, upper GI, lower GI, bariatrics, endocrine, HPB, abdominal wall and technology/research. The
statements addressed elective and emergency services across all subspecialties with specifc attention to the role of MIS
during the recovery plan. Eighty-four of the statements were approved during the frst round of Delphi voting (91.3%) and
another 8 during the following round after substantial modifcation, resulting in a 100% consensus.
Conclusion: The recommendations formulated by the EAES board establish a framework for resumption of surgery following
COVID-19 pandemic with particular focus on the role of MIS across surgical specialities. The statements have the potential
for wide application in the clinical setting, education activities and research work across diferent healthcare systems