ABSTRACT
COVID-19 is to date a global pandemic that can affect all age groups; gastrointestinal symptoms are quite common in patients with COVID-19 and a new clinical entity defined as Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) has been described in children and adolescents previously affected by COVID-19. Presenting symptoms of this new disease include high fever and severe abdominal pain that can mimic more common causes of abdominal pain; patients can rapidly deteriorate presenting severe cardiac dysfunction and multiorgan failure. Some fatalities due to this serious illness have been reported. We describe the case of a ten-year-old patient presenting with persistent high fever associated with continuous and worsening abdominal pain. Various hypotheses were performed during his diagnostic workup and an initial appendectomy was performed in the suspect of acute appendicitis. As his clinical picture deteriorated, the child was subsequently diagnosed and successfully treated as a case of MIS-C. The objective of this case report and brief review of abdominal pain in children throughout the age groups is to provide the emergency pediatrician with updated suggestions in diagnosing abdominal pain in children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Subject(s)
Abdominal Pain/etiology , COVID-19/complications , Pediatric Emergency Medicine/statistics & numerical data , Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome/diagnosis , Abdominal Pain/diagnosis , Acute Disease , Appendectomy/methods , Appendicitis/diagnosis , Appendicitis/surgery , COVID-19/diagnosis , COVID-19/epidemiology , COVID-19/pathology , COVID-19/therapy , COVID-19/virology , Combined Modality Therapy , Conjunctivitis/etiology , Dyspnea/diagnosis , Dyspnea/therapy , Fever/diagnosis , Fever/etiology , Humans , Immunoglobulins, Intravenous/administration & dosage , Immunoglobulins, Intravenous/therapeutic use , Male , Mucositis/etiology , Oxygen/therapeutic use , Pediatric Emergency Medicine/trends , Platelet Aggregation Inhibitors/therapeutic use , SARS-CoV-2/genetics , Steroids/therapeutic use , Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome/complications , Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome/pathology , Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome/therapy , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
Literature describing the trends and utilization of pediatric eye-related emergency department (ED) visits is limited. We performed a retrospective cohort study of 311 pediatric patients visiting Bascom Palmer Eye Institute (BPEI) ED between March and May 2020 to quantify the effect of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on ophthalmology care utilization. In our study, pediatric ED visits declined by half at the onset of the pandemic in March. The number of visits reached the lowest point in early April and increased to 48% of the pre-COVID volume by the end of May. Despite changes in volume, patient demographics and clinical diagnoses were relatively consistent throughout the pandemic.