The working of the urology department during the COVID-19 epidemic

Abstract

Introduction. In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) a pandemic. The pandemic also significantly affected all academic, scientific and educational activities.
 Material and methods. We compared the work of the urological departments of the private (Medical Center Avicenna, Novosibisk) and municipal (City Clinical Hospital No. 11, Barnaul) clinics, as well as the urogenital department of the Novosibirsk Research Institute of Tuberculosis of the Ministry of Healthcare of Russia for 6 months of calm 2019, and the first half of 2020, which coincided with the start of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
 Results. In March 2020, the urogenital department of the Novosibirsk Research Institute of Tuberculosis of the Ministry of Healthcare of Russia was redesigned into an observational one. In the first half of 2020, patients with malignant neoplasms, varicocele, chronic pyelonephritis, hydronephrosis, dropsy of the testicular membranes and with phimosis/paraphimosis were admitted to the urology department of the City Hospital No. 11 in Barnaul in the first half of 2020. On the contrary, statistically significant in 2020 the number of patients admitted for kidney abscess and acute prostatitis prevailed. It can be assumed that, due to the tense epidemic situation, patients postponed seeking medical attention until their condition required emergency intervention. In the Medical Center Avicenna (Novosibirsk) in the first half of 2020 the number of visits to the pediatric urologist significantly decreased, the inpatient and average bed-day decreased. On the contrary the total duration of the patients' stay in the day hospital has significantly increased, which is logically explained by the epidemic situation; there was a statistically significant decrease in the number of most operations and outpatient procedures.
 Conclusion. The new coronavirus infection has affected all spheres of human life, to a maximum extent on medicine. In the first six months, no unified approaches to the management of urological patients in epidemic conditions were developed; clinics worked according to internal standards. Our analysis showed that strict adherence to sanitary and hygienic standards and the implementation of anti-epidemic measures allows us to provide urological care to patients in full-even in such unfavorable conditions.