Incidence of Retinal Artery and Vein Occlusions During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina
; 53(1): 22-30, 2022 01.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1603373
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE:
To examine whether new cases of retinal artery occlusion (RAO) or retinal vein occlusion (RVO) increased during the coronavirus 209 (COVID-19) pandemic. PATIENTS ANDMETHODS:
This was a retrospective cohort study of patients visiting retina clinics with a new diagnosis in two time periods between January 1, 2019, and February 29, 2020 (the pre-COVID-19 period), and between March 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020 (the COVID-19 period). The key outcome was the percentage of newly diagnosed central RAO (CRAO), branch RAO (BRAO), central RVO (CRVO), and branch RVO (BRVO) seen in each period.RESULTS:
The study population included 285,759 new patients in the pre-COVID-19 period and 156,427 new patients in the COVID-19 period. The overall number of new patients dropped dramatically during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic (24%, 66%, and 51% less new patients in March, April, and May 2020 than in the same months in 2019; P < .0001 for all 3 months). However, the decrease in the number of newly diagnosed patients with CRAO, CRVO, and BRAO during these months was less dramatic. As most states reopened in June and the number of patients in retina clinics started to increase, the newly diagnosed patients with these conditions as a percentage of all new diagnoses returned to similar trends as seen in the pre-COVID-19 period.CONCLUSIONS:
The percentage of new cases of RAO and RVO with respect to all new diagnoses in retina clinics remained stable for the majority of the COVID-19 period. There was an increase in these percentages during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for CRAO, CRVO, and BRAO, which may have led to the presumption that more patients presented with these conditions during the COVID-19 period evaluated in this study. [Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina. 2022;5322-30.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Retinal Artery
/
Retinal Vein Occlusion
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Diagnostic study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS