Impact of COVID-19 epidemic on maxillofacial surgery in Italy.

Abstract Maxillofacial departments all over Italy were increasingly involved in facing the COVID-19 emergency. Elective surgeries have been progressively postponed to free beds and offer human and material sources. We compiled an inventory of 32 questions to evaluate the impact of SARS-COV2 epidemic on Maxillofacial Surgery in 23 selected Italian Maxillofacial departments. The questionnaire focused on three different aspects: the variation of the workload, showing both a reduction of the number of team members (-16% among specialists, -11% among residents) due to reallocation or contamination and a consistent decrease of elective activities (the number of outpatients visits loss during the first Covid-19 epidemic month is about 10000 all over Italy), while only tumor surgery and trauma surgery has been widely guaranteed; the screening procedures on patients and physicians (22% of maxillofacial units found infected surgeons, 4% of all Maxillofacial surgeons); and the availability of Personal Protective Equipment, whose supply is considered partial from 48% of Maxillofacial departments. The emergency forced the Italian health system to change the way we work but only time will prove these changes effective.