ArticleJournal of healthcare quality research
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on acute appendicitis in children.
Article in Journal of healthcare quality research. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Management and outcomes of acute appendicitis in children during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Pediatric surgery international · 2023Pooled it
- Acute Appendicitis in Children During War Conflict: Results from a Multicenter Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- SARS-CoV-2 infection and complicated appendicitis in adults in Lima, Peru: a matched case-control study.BMC surgery · 2025Article
- Comparison of Pediatric Acute Appendicitis Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in New York City.The western journal of emergency medicine · 2023Article
- Reasons for Delayed Diagnosis of Pediatric Acute Appendicitis during the COVID-19 Era: A Narrative Review.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- COVID19 detection in appendix of acute appendicitis in a child: a case report and review of literature.Surgical case reports · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
objectivesSince the COVID-19 pandemic confinement was established in Spain on March 9, 2020, the number of visits to the pediatric Emergency Department (ED) has decreased dramatically, probably due to the fear of parents becoming infected in the hospital environment. The aim of this work was to analyze the medium-term consequences during the first 9 months after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in children with acute appendicitis (AA). MATERIAL AND
methodsA retrospective study was performed on children operated on for AA in our institution between 2017 and 2020, who were distributed in two groups according to the date of surgery: COVID-19 group (after March 9, 2020) and control group (before March 9, 2020). Demographic variables, associated symptoms, time from symptoms onset, hospital stay, rate of complicated AA and postoperative complications were analyzed.
resultsA total of 1274 patients were included (288 COVID group; 986 control group), without demographic differences. Time from symptom onset was significantly longer in COVID-19 group (34.5 vs. 24.2h; p=0.021), although no differences in associated symptoms were observed between both groups. COVID-19 group presented a higher rate of complicated AA (20.1% vs. 14%; OR: 1.55; CI 95% [1.10-2.18]; p=0.008), a longer hospital stay (3.5 vs. 2.8 days; p=0.042) as well as a higher rate of postoperative complications (21.5% vs. 15.7%; OR: 1.47; CI 95% [(1.06-2.04)]; p=0.008).
conclusionIn our experience there was a negative medium-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children with acute appendicitis: delayed ED visits, increased rate of complicated AA, increased hospital stay and increased postoperative complications.
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