The impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on emergency department visits of surgical patients.
Ulus Travma Acil Cerrahi Derg
; 26(5): 685-692, 2020 Sep.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-782525
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) formed the basis for emergency department visits. This study aims to evaluate the effects of the pandemic on emergency department visits of surgical patients.METHODS:
The hospital database records of general surgery patients who presented at the emergency department in the period of March 2020-May 2020 (pandemic period) and March 2019-May 2019 (non-pandemic period) were retrospectively analyzed and compared. The primary outcome of this study was the emergency department visit rate of patients requiring a general surgery consultation. Secondary outcomes of this study were patient complaints, diagnosis and treatments, treatment rejection rate, triage category data, the effects of age and gender, and the hospitalization rate.RESULTS:
In this study, 618 patients were included 265 patients from the pandemic period and 353 patients from the non-pandemic period. The analysis and comparison revealed that during the pandemic period, the presentation rate of female patients was lower than that of male patients (45.5% vs. 55.5%, respectively, p=0.045). The triage category rates of patient visits to the hospital during the pandemic period were higher in yellow and red, and lower in green (p<0.01). The incidence of a surgical pathology finding was higher during the pandemic period (p=0.019). The incidence of diseases related to the gastrointestinal tract was higher during the pandemic period (p=0.011). The rate of open surgery in the pandemic period was higher than that of the non-pandemic period (80.5% vs. 32.7%, respectively; p<0.01). The treatment rejection rate was also higher in the pandemic period compared with the non-pandemic period (20% vs. 3.7%, respectively; p<0.01, r). In addition, the hospitalization period was shorter in the pandemic period (p=0.021).CONCLUSION:
A 25% reduction in the number of surgical patient visits to the emergency department was observed during the COVID-19 outbreak. The biggest decrease was seen in patients with a green triage code and female patients. It is significant to evaluate the effects of the pandemic on surgical patients visited the emergency department to manage the post-epidemic period and to prepare for possible future epidemic periods.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Pneumonia, Viral
/
Coronavirus Infections
/
Emergency Service, Hospital
/
Pandemics
/
Betacoronavirus
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Qualitative research
Limits:
Adult
/
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Journal:
Ulus Travma Acil Cerrahi Derg
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
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