Effects of the first-wave COVID-19 pandemic's on emergency urological care in Colombia: A multicenter study

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemics has caused millions of deaths worldwide, has increased the demand for in-hospital beds and has affected in-hospital activities of "non-respiratory patients." There is currently no known effect of the pandemic on the emergency urological care in our region. This study aims to estimate the first - wave COVID-19 pandemics effect on emergency urological care in four tertiary Colombian hospitals. Material and methods: A cross-sectional retrospective multicenter study were made. The emergency urological care activities between April - May 2019 and April - May 2020 were compared. We calculated descriptive statistics and assessed differences during the study periods. We used Stata 13.0. Results: 1570 patients were included. There was a 22.20% decrease in the number of patients who visited the emergency room (ER) for urological disease during the pandemic's initial phase. Urolithiasis and urological infectious were the most common reasons for consulting in the ER. The surgical index for patients who required emergency urological care had a increase of 10.74% (p 0.0001). There was a decrease of 0.74 days in hospital stay for patients who required urological emergency care in the initial COVID-19 pandemic period. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on emergency and elective urological care worldwide. During the initial phase of this emergency, there was a significant decreased in hospital admission and average hospital stays due to urological emergencies in Colombia, however, the surgical index for critical urological diseases increased by 10.74%. According to the pandemićs dynamics, a greater effect on urological care is expected..