Impact of the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 pandemic on digestive surgical activities: a Belgian National Survey

Background: Belgium was one of the first European countries affected by the first wave of the Covid-19 epidemic after Italy and France and has the highest rate of Covid-19-related deaths. Very few studies have evaluated the impact of the pandemic on surgical activity on a large scale. The primary objective of this national survey was to evaluate the impact of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic on surgical activities (elective non-oncological and oncological) in Belgian hospitals. Methods: A nationwide, multicenter survey was conducted in Belgium by the Royal Belgian Surgical Society (RBSS... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Liberale, Gabriel
Van Veer, Hans
Lemaitre, Jean
Duinslager, Marc
Ysebaert, Dirk
De Roover, Arnaud
de Gheldere, Charles
Komen, Niels
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2021
Schlagwörter: Chirurgie / Belgium / Covid-19 / digestive surgery / surgical activity / survey
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-26528060
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/326928

Background: Belgium was one of the first European countries affected by the first wave of the Covid-19 epidemic after Italy and France and has the highest rate of Covid-19-related deaths. Very few studies have evaluated the impact of the pandemic on surgical activity on a large scale. The primary objective of this national survey was to evaluate the impact of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic on surgical activities (elective non-oncological and oncological) in Belgian hospitals. Methods: A nationwide, multicenter survey was conducted in Belgium by the Royal Belgian Surgical Society (RBSS) board. The questionnaire focused on digestive surgical activity at different time points: period 1 (P1), before the epidemic; period 2 (P2), lockdown; and period 3 (P3), after stabilization of the epidemic. Results: The participation rate in the survey was 28.2% (24 out of 85 solicited hospitals), including 15 (62.5%) from the French speaking part of Belgium and 9 (37.5%) from the Flemish speaking part. Eighteen (75%) were non-academic and 6 (25%) were academic hospitals. All surgical activities were impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic except for the number of cholecystectomies. No statistical differences were observed between regions or according to the type of hospital. Conclusions: Our national survey confirms that the COVID-19 outbreak has severely impacted in-person consultations and surgical activity for benign and malignant disease and for acute appendicitis. However, procedures for benign disease were much more affected than those for malignancies. ; SCOPUS: ar.j ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published