Effect of COVID-19 on pediatric appendicitis presentations and complications
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Read the article on jpedsurg.org ↗Article · Jan 2022 · 1 min read
In brief
In brief
Retrospective study comparing pediatric appendicitis cases before and during COVID-19 pandemic (March-June 2019 vs 2020). Despite significantly delayed presentation during pandemic (2.42 vs 1.87 days), complication rates remained similar between groups, suggesting resilient surgical outcomes despite healthcare disruptions.
Written by the GCMD Library team from the article.
Purpose
Appendicitis is the most common surgical emergency in children. This study aims to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic affected pediatric patients with acute appendicitis with regards to presentation and complications.
Methods
After obtaining ethics approval, we performed a chart review of pediatric patients admitted with a diagnosis of appendicitis from March 1, 2019 to June 30, 2019 and March 1, 2020 to June 30, 2020. Data collection included a post-operative period of 30 days. The primary outcome of interest was complication rates post-appendectomy. Secondary outcomes included time to presentation, symptoms, time to surgery, and rate of perforation.
Results
Overall, 205 patients were included with 115 in the pre-pandemic group and 90 in the pandemic group. There was no significant difference in complication rates (16% pre-pandemic vs. 13.3% pandemic). In the pandemic group, time from symptom onset to presentation was significantly longer (1.87 days vs. 2.42 days, p=0.01), more patients presented with emesis (70% vs. 55%, p