Free Papers

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Eye-related Emergency Department Visits with Ophthalmology Consultation

Free Paper Details

First Author: C.Durmaz Engin TURKEY

Co Author(s):    B. Akbulut   O. Özçelik   T. Öztürk              

Abstract Details

Purpose:

To compare the characteristics of eye-related emergency department (ED) visits with ophthalmology consultation during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 against an equivalent period in 2019

Setting:

A cross-sectional, retrospective study conducted in a tertiary university hospital

Methods:

Records of 838 patients who admitted to ED for ophthalmic complaints between 11th of March 2020 (date of first COVID-positive case in the country) to 11th of September 2020 (Period 1 - P1) and 1585 patients who admitted to ED at equivalent period in the previous year (Period 2 - P2) were examined. Urgency status of complaint, diagnosis, treatment applied, hospitalization status of patients and total cost of health expences by institution were compared. Records of first 3-months (11th March-3th June) and second 3-months (3th June to 11th September) in 2020 were also compared to reveal the effect of lockdown.

Results:

There was 47.1% reduction in ED admissions between P1 and P2. The lockdown also caused 29% reduction in ED visits for ocular complaints. Top three diagnostic categories were corneal abrasion (CA) (percentage of total caseload: 21.3%), corneal foreign body (CFB) (16.6%) and acute conjunctivitis (12.7%) during P2 and CFB (29.5%), CA (13%) and orbital floor fracture (7.4%) during P1. While 64.5% of total cases were likely emergent in P2, the frequency increased to 79.4% during P1 (p<0.001). Type of treatment (p=0.089) and hospitalization status (p=0.29) were not different between two study periods. There was a 44.3% reduction in health expences.

Conclusions:

COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on number of eye related ED visits. The highest decrease was seen in the frequency of acute conjunctivitis cases which may be secondary to hand hygiene and social distancing measures. Delayed health seeking behaviour for subtle or less debilitating symptoms due to fear of contracting the virus by hospital attendance may cause the decrease of ED visits for not likely emergent conditions. Taking lessons from the COVID period, more rational use of emergency services can be achieved by health education.

Financial Disclosure:

-