[Impact of covid-19 on surgical activities in confessional hospitals in Cameroon]

Like all countries in the world, Cameroon has known since the advent of the pandemic linked to Covid-19, a drop in the use of health services.

to study the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on surgical activities.

This was a retrospective cross-sectional descriptive study from March 1 to April 30, 2020, conducted in three faith-based hospitals of the Presbyterian Church (EPC) in Cameroon. It included all records of patients admitted for surgery during the period of 1^st March to 30^th April of the last three years 2018, 2019 and 2020. A comparative analysis of surgical activities was evaluated between the three periods.

During our study 1851 surgical activities were recorded. The rates of completion of surgical procedures were: 83.33% in P1, 85.29% in P2 and 16.21% in P3 for general and oncology surgery. In pediatric surgery, these rates were: 80.35% in P1, 75% in P2 and 7.69% in P3. Gynecological surgery had the following completion rates: 78.07% in P1, 82.14% in P2 and 11.11% in P3. In all areas of surgery there was a significant decrease in the rate of completion of planned surgical activities, which was 68.1% in General and Oncology Surgery, 69.98% in Pediatric Surgery and 68.99% in Gynecological Surgery respectively.

Awareness of Covid-19 is necessary to reduce the psychosis of the populations attending surgical services.