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Pediatric Emergency Cases in the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Tertiary-Level Emergency Setting

AIM: Emergency cases are uncommon events in the pediatric emergency setting. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic by describing the number and type of pediatric emergency cases that arrived at the pediatric emergency department (PED) of a tertia...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Cozzi, Giorgio, Molina Ruiz, Idoya, Giudici, Fabiola, Romano, Sara, Grigoletto, Veronica, Barbi, Egidio, Amaddeo, Alessandro
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9279893/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35844743
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fped.2022.918286
Descripción
Sumario:AIM: Emergency cases are uncommon events in the pediatric emergency setting. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic by describing the number and type of pediatric emergency cases that arrived at the pediatric emergency department (PED) of a tertiary-level children’s hospital in Italy. METHODS: We performed a retrospective study, collecting the main features of pediatric emergency patients who arrived during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020–February 2021) compared to the pre-pandemic period (March 2016–February 2020). RESULTS: During the study period, 112,168 patients were visited at the PED, and 237 (0.21%) were emergency cases, median age of 4 years (IQR: 1–12). In the first year of the pandemic, 42 children were coded as emergency cases compared to 195 (49/year) during the pre-pandemic period. The proportion of emergency cases was stable (0.27% during the COVID-19 period versus 0.20% during the pre-COVID-19 period, p = 0.19). No differences were found regarding the age, gender, hour of arrival, and outcome of patients. We found a significant decrease in the proportion of emergency cases related to respiratory diseases (9/42, 21.4% during the COVID-19 period versus 83/195 during the pre-COVID-19 period (42.6%), p = 0.01). CONCLUSION: In conclusion, our data suggest that the pandemic had a more significant impact on respiratory emergency cases than on pediatric emergencies in general.