ArticlePloS one2023
Scheduled and urgent inguinal hernia repair in Ontario, Canada between 2010 and 2022: Population-based cross sectional analysis of trends and outcomes.
Article in PloS one, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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2 citing papers in PubMed, 2 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
- The impact of elective surgery postponement during COVID-19 on emergency bellwether procedures in a large tertiary centre in Singapore.International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionWe examine trends in inguinal hernia repairs with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic and secular trends in Ontario, Canada.
methodsThis was a retrospective cohort study. Hernia repairs performed January 1, 2010-December 31, 2022 were captured from health administrative inpatient and outpatient databases. Patients managed in three clinical settings were examined: public hospital in-patient, semi-private hospital in-patient (Shouldice Hospital), and public hospital out-patient. We examined the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on surgical volumes, clinical setting, patient characteristics by setting, time from diagnosis until surgery, hospital length-of-stay, and patient outcomes (90-day readmissions, 1-year reoperations). We used multivariable logistic regression to examine whether patient outcomes were comparable between the COVID-19 period and the pre-pandemic period, adjusted sociodemographic and clinical factors. Shouldice Hospital is the only semi-private hospital in Ontario specializing in hernia repair (patients pay for the mandated admission, but not for the procedure).
resultsDuring the pandemic (March 2020-December 2022), there were 8,162 fewer (15%) scheduled inguinal hernia repairs than expected, but the age-sex standardized rate of urgent repairs remained unchanged. Shouldice Hospital performed more surgeries in the COVID-19 era than pre-pandemic and had a shorter average LOS by 24 hours, despite treating more patients with older age, higher ASA score [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 2.13 (1.93-2.35) III vs I-II] and greater comorbidity [aOR 1.36 (1.08-1.70) for 2 vs none] than pre-pandemic. Patients treated in the COVID-19 era experienced a longer time until surgery, being the longest in 2022 (median 133 days). Ninety-day readmissions and 1-year reoperations were lower in the COVID-19 era and lower for patients receiving surgery at Shouldice Hospital.
conclusionDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 8,162 fewer scheduled hernia repairs than expected, longer wait-times until surgery, shorter length-of-stay, and more patients with comorbidities, but outcomes were not worse compared with the pre-pandemic period.
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