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The effects of COVID-19 pandemic on patients with acute appendicitis
Nihan Turhan1, Çiğdem Dicle Arıcan2
1Department of General Surgery, Martyr Prof. Dr. Ilhan Varank Sancaktepe Training and Research Hospital, İstanbul-Turkey.
Insights
During the COVID-19 pandemic, fewer patients with acute appendicitis sought hospital care, leading to delayed diagnosis and more complex cases. Urgent surgical conditions require continued access to treatment despite public health crises.
Area of Science:
- General Surgery
- Infectious Diseases
- Public Health
Background:
- The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted global healthcare systems, raising concerns about access to urgent surgical care.
- Acute appendicitis, a common surgical emergency, may have been affected by pandemic-related healthcare disruptions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the management and outcomes of acute appendicitis patients.
- To compare patient presentation, clinical findings, and treatment of acute appendicitis before and during the pandemic.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective comparison of acute appendicitis patients admitted between March 11, 2020, and May 21, 2020 (pandemic period) with those from the prior year.
- Evaluation of clinical and pathological findings, and treatment modalities for both patient cohorts.
Main Results:
- A decrease in the number of acute appendicitis admissions was observed during the pandemic period (61 patients vs. 103 patients in the previous year).
- Patients during the pandemic presented later with more complicated appendicitis (33.96% vs. 8.00% complicated cases, p<0.05).
- Fewer patients sought hospital care, and presentations were delayed during the pandemic.
Conclusions:
- Urgent surgical conditions, such as acute appendicitis, must not be neglected during pandemics.
- Clinical practices were adapted to ensure the early discharge of acute appendicitis patients during the pandemic.
- The study highlights the need for continued access to emergency surgical care amidst global health crises.
Background:
The effects of the COVID-19 infection on the world's health system began to be reported in a short time, with the spread of the infection all over the world and it gained a global acceptance as a pandemic. It was predicted that patients who require urgent surgical procedures may not be able to access appropriate treatment during this period and may suffer from this process. In this process, we planned to report the effects of the pandemic process to this patient group by evaluating patients with acute appendicitis, which is the most common cause of acute abdomen among general surgery emergencies.
Methods:
In our study, we compared the patients who applied to the Training and Research Hospital we collaborated, whose clinics were compatible with acute appendicitis, between March 11, 2020, and May 21, 2020, with those applied within the same time period with the year before. We evaluated clinical and pathological findings of the patients and the treatment applied.
Results:
In this study, there were 103 patients diagnosed with acute appendicitis before pandemic and 61 in pandemic period. We found that during the pandemic period, patients with acute appendicitis were admitted to the hospital less often, and in a later period, and more complicated clinical pictures were determined. Complicated appendicitis patients were higher in pandemic period compared with previous year (33.96% vs. 8.00% of patients, respectively; p<0.05).
Conclusion:
We emphasized that diseases that need to be treated urgently should not be left behind during the pandemic. Furthermore, we shared our clinical practice to ensure early discharge of patients with acute appendicitis during the pandemic process.
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