ArticleBMC ophthalmology2021
Ophthalmic emergency-room visits during the Covid-19 pandemic - a comparative study.
Article in BMC ophthalmology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Ophthalmic Emergency Department Visits at a Tertiary Medical Center in Israel: Demographics and Clinical Characteristics Over a Six-Month Period.Clinical ophthalmology (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Article
- Effect of COVID-19 Shelter-In-Place Orders on Visual Outcomes of Ophthalmic Surgical Emergencies.Ophthalmic epidemiology · 2025Article
- Evaluating Ocular Healthcare Accessibility and the Severity of Emergencies during Times of Crisis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Impact of COVID-19 on a rare disease (uveal melanoma) in a national reference unit of intraocular tumors in Spain.Archivos de la Sociedad Espanola de Oftalmologia · 2023Observational
- [Impact of COVID-19 on a rare disease (uveal melanoma) in a national reference unit of intraocular tumors in Spain].Archivos de la Sociedad Espanola de Oftalmologia · 2023Article
- Commentary: Post-pandemic lessons learnt regarding triage, mitigation, and management of emergency ocular conditions.Indian journal of ophthalmology · 2023Article
- The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Emergency Department Visits Resulting in Ophthalmology Consultations.Cureus · 2022Article
- Impact of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on ophthalmological emergency visits: 1 year of experience.Arquivos brasileiros de oftalmologia · 2022Article
- Impact of the first lockdown related to the COVID-19 pandemic on ophthalmic emergencies in a French University Hospital.Journal francais d'ophtalmologie · 2022Article
- Article
- Ocular Morbidity among Patients Visiting the Department of Ophthalmology during the Coronavirus Disease 2021 Pandemic at a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study.JNMA; journal of the Nepal Medical Association · 2021Article
- COVID-19 Changed Prevalence, Disease Spectrum and Management Strategies of Ocular Trauma.Frontiers in medicine · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe goal of this study is to compare ophthalmic emergency room (OER) visits during the Coronavirus disease-19 (Covid-19) pandemic to those during a control period.
methodsWe compared all visits to the OER to Meir Medical Center in Israel, from March 15th to April 15th, 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic and government mandated quarantine, to the same period in 2019. Factors analyzed were patient demographics, chief complaints, referral patterns, exam findings, treatments given, hospitalizations and surgical interventions.
resultsWe included in this study 1311 visits of 1158 patients, 477 during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic and 834 during the same period in 2019. The demographic distribution (age, gender, and ethnicity) was similar between the two periods. LogMAR visual acuity at presentation was worse during the Covid-19 pandemic (0.42 ± 0.6 and 0.34 ± 0.5 in 2020 and 2019 respectively; p = 0.025) and the number of emergent surgeries was higher (3.7% in 2020 vs 1.8% in 2019, p = 0.026). In 2019 there was a higher likelihood of involvement of both segments of the eye (4.82% versus 1.2%, p < 0.01) and more diagnoses were given to each patient (1 ± 0.5 versus 0.93 ± 0.35, p = 0.001; During the Covid - 19 pandemic medications (both topical and systemic) were prescribed more often (1.22 ± 0.95 in 2020 and 0.84 ± 0.67 in 2019, p < 0.001).
conclusionsOER visits were less frequent during the Covid - 19 pandemic as compared to 2019, though the demographics of the patients remained unchanged. Visits during the pandemic tended to be for more severe ocular conditions, with worse visual acuity at presentation and required more medical and surgical treatment which imply higher necessity of ocular evaluation. This analysis can aid healthcare resource management in similar scenarios in the future.
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