Long term results on the severity of acute appendicitis during COVID-19 pandemic

Author Department

Surgery

Document Type

Article, Peer-reviewed

Publication Date

3-2022

Abstract

Background: Acute appendicitis cases increased in severity following COVID-19 related restrictions in March, 2020 [1,2]. We investigated if similar changes occurred during Wave 2.

Methods: Acute appendicitis patients during Wave 1 were grouped 8 weeks before (Group A) and after (Group B) stay-at-home restrictions were initiated on March 15, 2020. Cases in Wave 2 were grouped 8 weeks before (Group C) and after (Group D) November 6, 2020. Groups were compared to equivalent time frames in 2018/2019.

Results: Group A vs B revealed 42.6% decrease (CI: - 59.4, - 25.7) in uncomplicated appendicitis, and 21.1% increase (CI: 4.8, 37.3) in perforated appendicitis. Similar patterns were noted comparing Group C vs D without statistical significance. The changes seen in Wave 1 were significantly different than in 2018/2019. This trend continued in Wave 2.

Conclusions: Similar to Wave 1, acute appendicitis cases increased in severity during wave 2 of COVID-19, but with less prominence.

Keywords: Appendicitis; COVID-19; Incidence; Pandemic; Severity.

PMID

35345554

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