ArticleSurgery2023
Impact of COVID-19 on volume of elective and nonelective ventral hernia repair.
Article in Surgery, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientific publications in the field of hernia surgery: a brief bibliometric analysis.Hernia : the journal of hernias and abdominal wall surgery · 2026Article
- Open preperitoneal abdominal wall reconstruction (AWR) for patients with deep inferior epigastric perforator (DIEP) or transverse rectus abdominis myocutaneous (TRAM) flap hernias.Surgical endoscopy · 2025Article
- Effects of an increase in emergency cases with difficulties in transport to hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic on postoperative short-term outcomes of colorectal perforation: A study based on the National Clinical Database.Annals of gastroenterological surgery · 2025Article
- Changing of nasal fracture patterns in maxillofacial trauma consultation-impact of the covid-19 pandemic.Oral and maxillofacial surgery · 2024Article
- Surgical Challenges During the COVID-19 Crisis: A Comparative Study of Inguinal Hernia Treatment in Romania.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Article
- Trends of Opioid Usage in Surgical Patients in a Small Community Hospital: Analysis of Patient Data Between 2017 and 2021.Hospital pharmacy · 2023Article
- Preservation of deep epigastric perforators during anterior component separation technique (ACST) results in equivalent wound complications compared to transversus abdominis release (TAR).Hernia : the journal of hernias and abdominal wall surgery · 2023Article
- State-of-the-art abdominal wall reconstruction and closure.Langenbeck's archives of surgery · 2023Article
- Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe significant decrease in elective surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic prompted fears that there would be an increase in emergency or urgent operations for certain disease states. The impact of COVID-19 on ventral hernia repair is unknown. This study aimed to compare volumes of elective and nonelective ventral hernia repairs performed pre-COVID-19 with those performed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
methodsAn analysis of a prospective database from 8 hospitals capturing patient admissions with the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision Procedure Coding System for ventral hernia repair from January 2017 through June 2021 were included. During, COVID-19 was defined as on or after March 2020.
resultsComparing 3,558 ventral hernia repairs pre-COVID-19 with 1,228 during COVID-19, there was a significant decrease in the mean number of elective ventral hernia repairs per month during COVID-19 (pre-COVID-19: 61 ± 5 vs during COVID-19 19: 39 ± 11; P < .001), and this persisted after excluding the initial 3-month COVID-19 surge (61 ± 5 vs 42 ± 9; P < .001). There were fewer nonelective cases during the initial 3-month COVID-19 surge (32 ± 9 vs 24 ± 4; P = .031), but, excluding the initial surge, there was no difference in nonelective volume (32 ± 9 vs 33 ± 8; P = .560). During COVID-19, patients had lower rates of congestive heart failure (elective: 9.0% vs 6.6%; P = .0047; nonelective: 17.7% vs 11.6%; P < .001) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (elective: 13.7% vs 10.2%; P = .017; nonelective: 17.9% vs 12.0%; P < .001) and underwent fewer component separations (10.2% vs 6.4%; P ≤ .001). Intensive care unit admissions decreased for elective ventral hernia repairs (7.7% vs 5.0%; P = .016). Length of stay, cost, and readmission were similar between groups.
conclusionElective ventral hernia repair volume decreased during COVID-19 whereas nonelective ventral hernia repairs transiently decreased before returning to baseline. During COVID-19, patients appeared to be lower risk and less complex. The possible impact of the more complex patients delaying surgery is yet to be seen.
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