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Pediatric surgery during coronavirus disease lockdown: Multicenter experience from North India

Author/s
Rahul S.K.,
Gupta M.K.,
Chaubey D.,
Kumar D.,
Keshri R.,
Kumar V.,
Upadhyaya V.D.
Year
Language
English
Document Type
Article
Source Title
Formosan Journal of Surgery
Publisher
Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications

Description

Background: Coronavirus disease Pandemic has affected the health-care delivery at all institutions worldwide. Analysis of multi-institutional data would reflect the impact and challenges of this pandemic in managing pediatric surgical cases. To assess the impact of lockdown due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the pediatric surgical cases operated at four tertiary care institutions. Materials and Methods: Retrospective data of all patients operated at four tertiary care centers in North India in three different states during the imposition of lockdown due to COVID-19 were collected and compared to the immediate prelockdown period. The impact of following the guidelines for surgery during this period was studied. Results: All the institutions involved in the study showed a significant fall in the number and nature of patients treated during the lockdown period when compared to the prelockdown data. No elective cases were operated; 100 children were operated during this period of which neonates (56%) formed the major group; most of them were cases of congenital anomalies which could not be deferred; solid tumours (3/100) were operated on semi-emergency basis; number of trauma patients fell down drastically (1/100); one patient had bronchoscopic foreign body removal; other patients were operated for different causes of acute abdomen. Several measures in the outpatient, intraoperative, and in-patient care were adopted to lessen the spread of virus to the patient and health-care team. Conclusion: Corona pandemic severely impacted both the number and types of patients operated. Strict adherence to the protocol delayed emergency treatment and increased the cost of definitive management. © 2020 Formosan Journal of Surgery.

Migration angle
Region/Country (by coverage)
Index Keywords

acute abdomen; adolescent; age; Article; bronchoscopy; child; congenital malformation; coronavirus disease 2019; female; foreign body; hospital care; human; India; infant; infection control; injury; major clinical study; male; newborn; outpatient care; pediatric patient; pediatric surgery; peroperative care; practice guideline; priority journal; quarantine; retrospective study; solid malignant neoplasm; surgical patient; tertiary care center