The Reduction Of Patients Visiting The Emergency Surgical Department Of A Tertiary General Hospital Of Athens In The Period Of Covid-19 Lockdown Forced In Greece

Aims A full lockdown was forced in Greece due to the COVID-19 pandemic for 53 days and specifically from 03/13/2020 to05/04/2020. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of lockdown on the number of patients visiting theEmergency Surgical Department (ESD) of a tertiary Greek hospital. It is common sense that the vast majority of patientsexamined in the ESDs have no symptoms related to SARS-CoV-2. Methods In this retrospective study, data exported from the Sismanogleio General Hospital's Emergency Department (ED)were studied during 4 different periods;a) the full lockdown period of 53 days, from 03/13/2020 to 05/04/2020, b) theperiod of 53 days right before the lockdown, from 01/20/2020 to 03/12/2020, c) the period of 53 days right after thelockdown, from 05/05/2020 to 06/26/2020 and d) the time period of the previous year that is analogous with the lockdownduration, from 03/13/2019 to 05/04/2019. Results The number of patients visiting the ESD of our hospital was significantly altered during the lockdown period([ Tab.1 ]). The reduction of this number is remarkable compared to the rest time periods of the study. To be exact, this decreaseis 55.32 %, 52.58 %, and 55.79 % compared to the pre-traffic ban duration, the post-ban span, and the previous year'ssimilar time period. Conclusions Data provided by our ED is congruent with many other reports all over the world showing a dramaticlessening of people attending the ESD amid the outbreak of COVID-19. People's angst about contracting the disease wasundoubtedly the most obvious reason for that.