ArticleArchives of disease in childhood2024
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the clinical management trends for acute appendicitis among the under-25s: a retrospective study.
Article in Archives of disease in childhood, 2024. 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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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Has the Number of Pediatric Testicular Torsion Cases Abated After the Height of the COVID-19 Pandemic?Cureus · 2026Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the pattern of acute appendicitis, a single-center study.Frontiers in surgery · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
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Abstract
objectiveTo describe the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on acute appendicitis management on children and young people (CYP).
designRetrospective cohort study.
settingAll English National Health Service hospitals. PATIENTS: Acute appendicitis admissions (all, simple, complex) by CYP (under-5s, 5-9s, 10-24s). EXPOSURE: Study pandemic period: February 2020-March 2021. Comparator pre-pandemic period: February 2015-January 2020.
main outcome measuresMonthly appendicectomy and laparoscopic appendicectomy rate trends and absolute differences between pandemic month and the pre-pandemic average. Proportions of appendicitis admissions comprising complex appendicitis by hospital with or without specialist paediatric centres were compared.
results101 462 acute appendicitis admissions were analysed. Appendicectomy rates fell most in April 2020 for the 5-9s (-18.4% (95% CI -26.8% to -10.0%)) and 10-24s (-28.4% (-38.9% to -18.0%)), driven by reductions in appendicectomies for simple appendicitis. This was equivalent to -54 procedures (-68.4 to -39.6) and -512 (-555.9 to -467.3) for the 5-9s and 10-24s, respectively. Laparoscopic appendicectomies fell in April 2020 for the 5-9s (-15.5% (-23.2% to -7.8%)) and 10-24s (-44.8% (-57.9% to -31.6%) across all types, which was equivalent to -43 (-56.1 to 30.3) and -643 (-692.5 to -593.1) procedures for the 5-9s and 10-24s, respectively. A larger proportion of complex appendicitis admissions were treated within trusts with specialist paediatric centres during the pandemic.
conclusionsFor CYP across English hospitals, a sharp recovery followed a steep reduction in appendicectomy rates in April 2020, due to concerns with COVID-19 transmission. This builds on smaller-sized studies reporting the immediate short-term impacts.
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