What has changed during the state of emergency due to COVID-19 on an Academic Urology Department of a Tertiary Hospital in Portugal. / Los cambios producidos durante el estado de alarma debido a la COVID-19 en un Servicio de Urología de un Hospital Universitario Terciario en Portugal.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To compare the activity the Urology Department of a Portuguese Academic Hospital during the state of emergency and the equivalent period at the previous year. We compared the number of elective consultations and diagnostic urologic examinations, number and type of elective surgeries, as well as patients' demographic characteristics and main causes of presentation to Urology Emergency Department (ED) during the two mentioned periods MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data from 691 patients coming to emergency department were collected from institutional clinical software from March 18 th 2020 to May 2 nd 2020 - and from the same period the previous year. Data collected were age, sex, day of the presentation to Emergency Department, referral from other hospitals, triage color, reason of admission, diagnosis of discharge, and the need for emergency surgery or hospitalization. In order to identify associations between demographic and clinical variables with having been submitted to an emergency surgery (outcome), logistic regression models were applied. RESULTS: Multivariable analysis showed an association of sex with being submitted to surgery, 65.6% decrease in the odds for the male gender. The period (COVID versus non-COVID) did not show a significant association with surgery. CONCLUSION: Our department experienced a noticeable activity reduction. We also observe a reduction in urgent causes to attend the ED considered less serious. The percentage of cases requiring emergency surgery and hospitalization was higher during COVID-period.