TY  - JOUR
TI  - Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on pediatric appendicitis hospital admission time and length of hospital stay
AB  - BACKGROUND: Appendicitis is one of the most common surgical emergencies among children. In this retrospective clinical study, we attempted to determine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic period on hospital admission time and length of hospital stay (LOS) in pediatric appendicitis cases. METHODS: We retrospectively compared pediatric appendectomies from the date of the first reported COVID-19 case to June 1, 2020, which is considered as the start of the normalization process, with pre-pandemic pediatric appendectomies of the same number of days in terms of age, gender, hospital admission time, LOS, parental educational level, laboratory values, and histopathological findings. RESULTS: There was an average increase of 2 days in the time from the onset of symptoms to hospital admission in pediatric appen- dicitis patients in the COVID-19 period (p=0.001). Furthermore, C-reactive protein value was statistically significantly higher in the COVID-19 period (p=0.018). Given the LOS, it was calculated as an average of 5 days in the pre-pandemic period and 4 days in the COVID-19 period, and this difference was statistically insignificant (p=0.273). There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of histopathological findings (p=0.176). The parental educational level had no effect on the admission time. CONCLUSION: The hospital admission time of pediatric appendicitis patients is significantly prolonged in the COVID-19 pandemic, but this prolongation had no histopathological effect. During the pandemic, the recovery of patients who required urgent treatment during the “stay-at-home” period was also negatively affected. Notwithstanding, we are of the opinion that the absence of an increase in the LOS may be due to the willingness of both families and physicians to keep the LOS as short as possible. Despite the increase in hospital admission time in pediatric appendicitis during the Covid 19 pandemic process, the lack of increase in the rate of complicated appendicitis may be an indicator of the importance of other factors in the development of complicated appendicitis.
AU  - Taşçı, Aytaç
AU  - SERBEST ÇİN, ECEM
AU  - ARSLAN, Ahmet Kadir
AU  - GÜRÜNLÜOĞLU, Kubilay
AU  - yıldız, turan
AU  - Demircan, Mehmet
AU  - akpınar, necmettin
DO  - 10.14744/tjtes.2021.06777
PY  - 2022
JO  - Ulusal Travma ve Acil Cerrahi Dergisi
VL  - 28
IS  - 8
SN  - 1306-696X
SP  - 1095
EP  - 1099
DB  - TRDizin
UR  - http://search/yayin/detay/1137389
ER  -