A comparison of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on urological surgeries in Japan and Taiwan.

OBJECTIVE: We report the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on urological surgeries and hospital policies at two hospitals in Japan and Taiwan. METHODS: We retrospectively surveyed the number of surgeries every 3 months in the Urology Department of Kobe University Hospital (KUH), Kobe, Japan before (January 2019-March 2020) and after (April 2020-September 2021) the COVID-19 outbreak, and in the Urology Department of Shuang Ho Hospital, Taipei Medical University (SHH-TMU), Taiwan before (January 2021-March 2021) and after (April 2021-September 2021) the outbreak, and compared the averages and types of surgery. RESULTS: In Kobe, COVID-19 patients were stratified such that other regional hospitals gave priority to treating COVID-19 while KUH gave priority to treating non-COVID-19 patients. In KUH, the number of surgeries did not change significantly, 237.2 ± 29.6 versus 246.3 ± 20.8 (p = 0.453). In Taiwan COVID-19 patients increased sharply in May 2021, and teaching hospitals in Taiwan were obliged to provide 20% of their total beds for COVID-19 patients. At SHH-TMU, there was a 33.3% drop in the number of surgeries during April-June 2021 compared to the pre-pandemic average. However, no significant changes were observed, 423.4 ± 68.4 versus 373 ± 91.0 (p = 0.298), because of the subsequent success in controlling the COVID-19 infection. CONCLUSIONS: The comparison of infection control measures between the two countries revealed that while both KUH and SHH-TMU successfully maintained the number of surgeries, the reasons for this were different for each.

The impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on changes in antimicrobial prophylaxis and development of genito-urinary tract infections after urodynamic study: A retrospective comparative study of a single rehabilitation hospital in Japan.

AIMS: To investigate the changes in the proportion of antimicrobial prophylaxis (AP) during the urodynamic study (UDS) and the frequency of posttest genito-urinary tract infections (GUTI) before and after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and evaluate this associations. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients who underwent UDS between 2015 and 2021 were targeted, and they were allocated to pre-2020 as before the appearance of COVID-19 and post-2020 as after that, and propensity score matching was performed. The impact on AP was assessed by the administration rate, and that on the development of febrile GUTI after UDS was assessed for an equivalence by the GUTI-free rate at 7 days after testing. RESULTS: After matching, 384 cases of 192 cases each were included. The frequency of AP was 58.3% in pre-2020 and 77.1% in post-2020, an increase of about 19%, and the rate increased significantly in post-2020 (p < 0.001). However, the incidence of GUTI after UDS was 4.2% and 4.7%, respectively, with no significant difference. The ratio of GUTI-free rates was within the equivalence margin, confirming an equivalence before and after the appearance of COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS: Under the influence of COVID-19 pandemic, even though AP rate during UDS was increased by 19% from that brought by following the guideline-based administration methods, the frequency of GUTI after UDS was similar, so it is thought to be important to use AP during UDS appropriately for high-risk cases as recommended in the guidelines.