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Trend of emergency general surgery procedures during COVID-19 pandemic
Gabriele Bellio1, Paola Germani2, Alan Biloslavo2
1Department of General Surgery, Cattinara University Hospital, Trieste, Italy - gabrielebellio87@gmail.com.
Insights
The COVID-19 pandemic saw a 30% decrease in emergency general surgery (EGS) procedures. Patient characteristics remained similar, except for a higher prevalence of male patients undergoing EGS during the pandemic.
Area of Science:
- Surgical Procedures
- Epidemiology
- Public Health
Background:
- The COVID-19 pandemic prompted global health resource reallocation and country-wide lockdowns.
- Understanding the pandemic's impact on essential surgical services like emergency general surgery (EGS) is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the trend in EGS procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- To determine changes in patient and disease characteristics for EGS during this period.
Main Methods:
- Multicentric retrospective observational cohort analysis.
- Comparison of EGS procedures performed during the COVID-19 lockdown period versus the same period in the prior year.
- Data collected from three tertiary care hospitals in Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy.
Main Results:
- A 30.0% reduction in EGS procedures was observed during the pandemic (138 in 2020 vs. 197 in 2019).
- The daily incidence rate of EGS decreased from 3.5 to 2.5 surgeries per day (P<0.001).
- Patients undergoing EGS in 2020 showed a higher prevalence of males (76.8% vs. 55.8%, P<0.001) with no significant difference in disease severity.
Conclusions:
- A significant decrease in emergency general surgery procedures occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The reasons for this reduction in EGS procedures remain unclear.
Background:
In early 2020, the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) spread rapidly throughout the whole world, causing a massive response in terms of health resource disposal. Moreover, lockdowns were imposed in entire countries. This study aims to assess whether there was a downward trend in emergency general surgery (EGS) procedures accomplished throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and to determine patients' and diseases' characteristics.
Methods:
This is a multicentric retrospective observational cohort analysis conducted on patients who underwent EGS procedures during the lockdown and the same period of the previous year in the three Third Level Hospitals of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy.
Results:
During the study period, 138 patients underwent EGS procedures versus the 197 patients operated on in 2019, meaning a 30.0% decrease in the number of surgeries performed. The incidence rate for EGS procedures was 2.5 surgeries per day during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to 3.5 surgeries per day in 2019 (P<0.001). The characteristics of patients operated on in 2020 were comparable to those of patients who underwent EGS in 2019, except for the higher prevalence of male patients during the COVID-19 pandemic (76.8 vs. 55.8; P<0.001). No difference was recorded in disease severity between the two study periods.
Conclusions:
During the COVID-19 pandemic, a significant reduction in EGS procedures carried out was recorded. However, no clear explanation can be given to elucidate this fact.
