MULTICENTER STUDY: IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON SURGICAL PROCEDURES

MURAT ALKAN, ERHAN AYSAN, METİN YEŞİLTAŞ, SAMİ AÇAR, METİN KEMENT, OKAN OK, UFUK OGUZ IDİZ, ADNAN ÖZPEK, SELÇUK KAYA, HASAN FEHMİ KÜÇÜK, AHMET BAŞKENT

Southern Clinics of Istanbul Eurasia - 2023;34(1):59-64

INTRODUCTION: We aimed to evaluate the effect of the pandemic by comparing the number and distribution of patients who applied to the emergency services and were consulted to the emergency surgery service in the first peak period of the COVID-19 pandemic period with the same period of the previous year. METHODS: Istanbul is the province with the highest population in Turkey. Patients who applied to the emergency departments of five hospitals serving at tertiary level in Istanbul were evaluated retrospectively. It was divided into two groups as the February–June 2020 pandemic period and the February–June 2019 pre-pandemic period. In both periods, the number of patients admitted to the emergency department and the number of patients who were consulted to general surgery and their distribution according to the reasons for their visit were analyzed. Results: The total number of patients admitted to the emergency department in the 5-month period during the pandemic period in 2020 was 548,509 and 742,064 for the pandemic period and the 5-month period in 2019, respectively. The total number of patients admitted or consulted to emergency general surgery was 21,399 and 30,868, respectively. In total, there was a 26.1% decrease in the number of patients who came to the emergency department during the pandemic period, and a 30.7% decrease in the number of patients consulted to the emergency general surgery (p<0.001). During the pandemic period, there was a decrease of 23.9% (p=0.62) in the total number of surgeries performed in the emergency surgery service, and 11.9% (p=0.59) in the surgeries performed due to trauma. The number of patients operated for non-traumatic reasons was 24% during the pandemic period. 0.4 (p<0.004) decreased, while the number of conservatively followed non-traumatic patients increased by 54.6% (p<0.0001). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: In the first peak period of the COVID-19 epidemic in Istanbul, the number of patients coming to the emergency services in tertiary hospitals and the number of patients admitted to emergency surgery units and operated on decreased. There was a decrease in the number of surgeries in emergency surgery patients due to trauma and non-traumatic. An increase was observed in the number of non-traumatic conservative follow-up and emergency surgery patients treated.