Kaya SARIBEYOĞLU

Dear Authors of Turkish Journal of Surgery,

As you all know, the first half of 2020 was an historical era of the human history, regarding the Coronavirus pandemic. We are all affected by the medical, social, economical and psychological etc. effects of this disease. The long-term impact is still unclear. It is undoubtedly the biggest global pandemic of our generations with more than 7 millions of patients and above 400.000 deaths. The healthcare workers were (and are still) among the most affected professionals in this pandemic.

On behalf of my editorial team I would like to present our deepest and most sincere condolences for all the losses and we are wishing a speed recovery for those who are still under therapy.

Coronavirus outbreak affected also the patients who are waiting for a treatment for other medical causes. It is a very challenging situation for the colleagues to perform the best treatment in this particular time. We are operating the patients with verified or suspected Coronavirus infection, or have to schedule elective /semi-elective operations in seronegative patients. Since it is a very acute problem, we do not still have enough data in order to guide our daily decisions. Throughout the pages of this present June 2020 issue of Turkish Journal of Surgery you may find four articles that address this problem (1-4). We are glad to publish these reviews and studies regarding digestive and breast surgeries in Coronavirus era and hope that they ease the decision-making in your practical work.

The June 2020 issue contains also numerous high-quality studies of different disciplines. We are persuaded that you will find these articles interesting and useful for your daily work. I would like to point out the study of Schellenberg et al. about the frostbite injuries (5). It is an interesting and a very large study based on the data of National Trauma Databank. I hope that you may benefit from the experience of the authors, who are among the prominent surgeons in trauma surgery.

Finally you were certainly informed that the 22nd Turkish National Surgery Congress had to be postponed because of the measures against Coronavirus pandemic. The Turkish Surgical Society has recently announced that the meeting will take place from October 7th to 11th, 2020 in the same Congress Center in Antalya. Please note these dates. Again we look forward to see you all in 22nd Turkish National Surgery Congress to benefit from your contributions.

We wish you a pleasant reading.
Kindest regards,
Kaya SARIBEYOĞLU
Professor of Surgery
Turkish Journal of Surgery
Editor