Suspected and confirmed acute appendicitis during the COVID-19 pandemic: first and second quarantines - a prospective study /

Vidas Petrauskas; Eligijus Poškus; Raminta Lukšaitė-Lukštė; Marius Kryžauskas; Marius Petrulionis; Kęstutis Strupas; Tomas Poškus

doi:10.3389/fsurg.2022.896206

Title	Suspected and confirmed acute appendicitis during the COVID-19 pandemic: first and second quarantines - a prospective study /
Authors	Petrauskas, Vidas ; Poškus, Eligijus ; Lukšaitė-Lukštė, Raminta ; Kryžauskas, Marius ; Petrulionis, Marius ; Strupas, Kęstutis ; Poškus, Tomas
DOI	10.3389/fsurg.2022.896206
Full Text
Is Part of	Frontiers in surgery.. Lausanne : Frontiers Media S.A.. 2022, vol. 9, art. no. 896206, p. [1-7].. eISSN 2296-875X
Keywords [eng]	acute appendicitis ; complicated ; COVID-19 ; delayed presentation ; quarantine
Abstract [eng]	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.
Published	Lausanne : Frontiers Media S.A
Type	Journal article
Language	English
Publication date	2022
CC license

„Suspected and confirmed acute appendicitis during the COVID-19 pandemic: first and second quarantines - a prospective study /“