Article ; Online: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on paediatric surgical volumes in Africa: A retrospective observational study.
2022 Volume 58, Issue 2, Page(s) 275–281
Abstract: Background: The aim of this study is to investigate the impact that COVID-19 had on the pattern and trend of surgical volumes, urgency and reason for surgery during the first 6 months of the pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa.: Methods: This ... ...
| Abstract | Background: The aim of this study is to investigate the impact that COVID-19 had on the pattern and trend of surgical volumes, urgency and reason for surgery during the first 6 months of the pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: This retrospective facility-based study involved collection of paediatric operation data from operating theatre records across 5 hospitals from 3 countries: Zimbabwe, Zambia and Nigeria over the first half of 2019 and 2020 for comparison. Data concerning diagnosis, procedure, anaesthesia, grade, speciality, NCEPOD classification and indication was collected. The respective dates of enactment of cancellation policies in each country were used to compare changes in weekly median surgical case volume before cancellation using the Wilcoxon Sign-Rank Test. Results: A total of 1821 procedures were recorded over the study period. Surgical volumes experienced a precipitous drop overall from a median of 100 cases/week to 50 cases/week coinciding with cancellation of surgical electives. Median accumulated weekly procedures before COVID-related cancellation were significantly different from those after cancellation (p = 0.027). Emergency surgery fell by 23.3% while electives fell by 78,9% (P = 0.042). The most common primary indication for surgery was injury which experienced a 30.5% drop in number of procedures, only exceeded by congenital surgery which dropped 34.7%. Conclusions: The effects of surgical cancellations during the covid-19 pandemic are particularly devastating in African countries where the unmet need and surgical caseload are high. Continued cancellations that have since occurred will cause similar drops in surgical case volume that these health systems may not have the resilience to recover from. Level of evidence: Level II. |
|---|---|
| MeSH term(s) | Child ; Humans ; COVID-19/epidemiology ; Pandemics ; Retrospective Studies ; Hospitals ; Nigeria |
| Language | English |
| Publishing date | 2022-10-31 |
| Publishing country | United States |
| Document type | Observational Study ; Journal Article |
| ZDB-ID | 80165-3 |
| ISSN | 1531-5037 ; 0022-3468 |
| ISSN (online) | 1531-5037 |
| ISSN | 0022-3468 |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2022.10.047 |
| Database | MEDical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System OnLINE |
Full text online
More links
Kategorien
In stock of ZB MED Cologne/Königswinter
| Zs.A 607: Show issues | Location: Je nach Verfügbarkeit (siehe Angabe bei Bestand) bis Jg. 1994: Bestellungen von Artikeln über das Online-Bestellformular Jg. 1995 - 2021: Lesesall (1.OG) ab Jg. 2022: Lesesaal (EG) |
Order via subito
This service is chargeable due to the Delivery terms set by subito. Orders including an article and supplementary material will be classified as separate orders. In these cases, fees will be demanded for each order.