Surgical Management of abnormal uterine bleeding with endometrial sampling during COVID-19

ABSTRACT

Objectives: To investigate the delay in surgical management of abnormal uterine bleeding with endometrial sampling during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic at a single, urban tertiary medical center. Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of 868 patients, 466 who received an endometrial biopsy in 2019 and 402 between January 1–March 23, 2020 (during the first peak of COVID-19) at a tertiary academic medical center in Philadelphia. We collected baseline patient characteristics including age, self-identified race or ethnicity, and BMI. We assessed the time from an abnormal endometrial biopsy to surgical management, use of at least one telemedicine appointment between biopsy and surgical management, and resulting pathology results. Chi-squared test was used to compare proportions of populations and two-tailed student's T-test was used to compare days between biopsy and surgical management. P-value was set at 0.05. Results: 466 and 402 patients underwent an endometrial biopsy in 2019 and between January 1 – March 23, 2020, respectively. In 2019, 4.94% were diagnosed with an endometrial malignancy and 95.1% had resulting benign pathology;while in 2020, 5.22% had a diagnosed endometrial malignancy and 94.8% had benign pathology (p-value = 0.84). Median age was 51.0 years (range, 19.0–89.0) in 2019 and 51.0 years (range 24–89) in 2020. Median BMI was 31.4 (range, 17.6–66.9) in 2019 and 31.1 (range, 16.3–74.2) in 2020. Median time between endometrial biopsy and surgical management was 66.5 days (range, 0–453 days) in 2019 and 94.0 days (range 13.0–335) in 2020 (p-value = 0.57). Median time from biopsy to surgery for patients with a resulting pathology of endometrial malignancy was 53 days (range, 0–441) in 2019 and 87.5 days (range 13.0–323) in 2020 (p-value = 0.50). Median time for patients with resulting benign pathology was 69.0 days (range, 9.00–453) in 2019 and 112 days (range, 33.0–335) in 2020 (p-value = 0.48). 57.4% of patients in 2020 had at least one telemedicine appointment with their physician between the initial encounter for abnormal uterine bleeding and surgical treatment, while no patients had a telemedicine appointment in 2019. Conclusions: During the COVID-19 pandemic, individual patients with abnormal uterine bleeding may have experienced delays between initial abnormal endometrial biopsy and surgical management. However, comparing the populations as a whole, there was not a statistical difference in time between biopsy and surgical management for abnormal uterine bleeding, reinforcing the quality of care given to our patients. However, further studies are needed to examine the effects of COVID-19 on possible delay in surgical treatment from first symptoms in patients with abnormal uterine bleeding to biopsy and to surgical management.