Effect of coronavirus disease 2019 lockdown on admission of surgical emergencies at Ain Shams University Hospital

Abstract

Background: Globally speaking, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on healthcare services. Several publications about the restructuring of surgical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic have been written, but few of them have specifically addressed the effects of this restructuring on the emergency and trauma surgery. The goal of this study was to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and Egypt’s national lockdown on admissions for acute surgical conditions at Ain Shams University Hospitals and compare those numbers to any existing international literature. Methods: The data were collected from the records of the surgical emergency department at Ain Shams University Hospital (El-Demerdash) for the period of national lockdown in the months of March, April, May and June 2020 and compared this with the data of the year 2019. Findings and Results: Total patients’ visits in the period from first of March till the end of June 2020 was 10294 patients visits with average daily visits 84, while it was 15672 with average daily visits 128 in the same period of 2019. There was a slight increase in the percent of admission from total visits from 30% in the period of March to June 2019 to 32% in the lockdown period in 2020, which means slight decrease of the unnecessary patients visits. The percent of emergency room (ER) operations of total admissions increased in the lockdown period which refer to the decrease in the number of conservatively managed patients of admitted patients. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic had its impact on the surgical emergency departments all over the world. It reduced the number of avoidable non-emergency ER visits, but in same time, it hasn’t stopped patients with high-risk surgical emergencies from getting urgent care. Also, during the pandemic surgeons delt with more severe conditions and complications as a result of the pandemic.