Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on acute appendicitis in children.
J Healthc Qual Res
; 37(4): 225-230, 2022.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1587262
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:
Since the COVID-19 pandemic confinement was established in Spain on March 9, 2020, the number of visits to the pediatric Emergency Department (ED) has decreased dramatically, probably due to the fear of parents becoming infected in the hospital environment. The aim of this work was to analyze the medium-term consequences during the first 9 months after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in children with acute appendicitis (AA). MATERIAL ANDMETHODS:
A retrospective study was performed on children operated on for AA in our institution between 2017 and 2020, who were distributed in two groups according to the date of surgery COVID-19 group (after March 9, 2020) and control group (before March 9, 2020). Demographic variables, associated symptoms, time from symptoms onset, hospital stay, rate of complicated AA and postoperative complications were analyzed.RESULTS:
A total of 1274 patients were included (288 COVID group; 986 control group), without demographic differences. Time from symptom onset was significantly longer in COVID-19 group (34.5 vs. 24.2h; p=0.021), although no differences in associated symptoms were observed between both groups. COVID-19 group presented a higher rate of complicated AA (20.1% vs. 14%; OR 1.55; CI 95% [1.10-2.18]; p=0.008), a longer hospital stay (3.5 vs. 2.8 days; p=0.042) as well as a higher rate of postoperative complications (21.5% vs. 15.7%; OR 1.47; CI 95% [(1.06-2.04)]; p=0.008).CONCLUSION:
In our experience there was a negative medium-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children with acute appendicitis delayed ED visits, increased rate of complicated AA, increased hospital stay and increased postoperative complications.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Appendicitis
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Child
/
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
J Healthc Qual Res
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
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