Abstract

Background: Since the COVID- 19 epidemic was declared by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020, routine clinical practices were affected, including pediatric surgery services. We aimed to compare pediatric surgery practices, including the number and types of surgery, both voluntary or emergency surgeries and outpatient services, before the outbreak and during the COVID- 19 epidemic in our institution.

Material and Methods: We retrospectively compared pediatric surgery practices, including voluntary and emergency surgeries, and outpatient services between the former one- time period( March 2019 – February 2020), the last three months of that period( December 2019 – February 2020) before the outbreak, and the three months( March – May 2020) during the COVID- 19 epidemic in our sanitorium.

Results: The frequency of voluntary surgeries during the epidemic was lower than during the last three months before the outbreak 61vs. 18(3-fold), 19vs. 13(15-fold), 19vs. 5(4-fold), and 30vs. 15(2-fold) for digestive, bambino, urology and oncology cases, singly. No laparoscopic procedures were performed during the epidemic compared with the one- time period before the outbreak (0vs. 16 cases). The frequency of all emergency pediatric procedures ahead and during the COVID- 19 epidemic was similar (29vs. 20 cases, singly). Also, a declining trend was also fluently apparent in the outpatient services during the epidemic compared with before the outbreak, both in the new and the established cases.

Conclusions: The pediatric surgery practices in our institution have been severely affected by the COVID19 epidemic, including voluntary and inpatient services. This reversal needs a comprehensive strategy to avoid morbidity from the neglected voluntary surgeries during the epidemic, including the proper comparison between the real trouble of COVID- 19cross- infection and the benefits of voluntary procedures [1]