Suspected and Confirmed Acute Appendicitis During the COVID-19 Pandemic: First and Second Quarantines—a Prospective Study

Frontiers in Surgery

article

Vidas Petrauskas¹  Eligijus Poskus¹  Raminta Luksaite – Lukste²  Marius Kryzauskas¹  Marius Petrulionis¹  Kestutis Strupas¹  Tomas Poskus¹ 

[1] Clinic of Gastroenterology, Nephro-Urology and Surgery, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University;Department of Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Medical Physics, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University

关键词: acute appendicitis;    complicated;    COVID-19;    delayed presentation;    quarantine;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fsurg.2022.896206

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Purpose COVID-19 posed an unprecedented modern global healthcare crisis affecting both elective and urgent surgeries. The aim of this study is to evaluate the difference in the presentation of acute appendicitis (AA) before and during the COVID-19 era, the first and second quarantines. Methods We performed a prospective study from December 2018 to May 2021. Two cohorts were analysed, one with patients who presented to the emergency department (ED) with suspected AA and the second with confirmed AA. Both cohorts were divided into four groups: before COVID-19, during the first quarantine, between the first and second quarantine, and during the second quarantine. Data such as demographics, the time to first contact with the healthcare provider and time to operation, laboratory tests, clinical stage of AA, length of stay, and COVID-19 status were collected. A total of 469 patients were enrolled. Results A total of 209 patients were male (45%) and 260 were female (55%), with the median age being 33 years (24–45). In the first cohort of suspected AA, there was no difference in sex; however, more older patients presented to the ED during the first quarantine (41 years) compared with other groups (28.5, 36, and 32.5 years), p   0.05). Conclusions Our study suggests that during the first quarantine of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was delayed presentation to the ED with suspected AA and there was a greater proportion of complicated appendicitis and longer hospitalization in confirmed cases as well.

【 授权许可】

CC BY