• J Card Surg · Nov 2020

    Comparative Study

    The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on congenital heart surgery practice: An alarming change in demographics.

    • Oktay Korun, Okan Yurdakök, Akın Arslan, Murat Çiçek, Arif Selçuk, Yiğit Kılıç, Fırat Altın, Ahmet Şaşmazel, and Numan Ali Aydemir.
    • Department of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, Dr. Siyami Ersek Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Training and Research Hospital, University of Health Sciences, İstanbul, Turkey.
    • J Card Surg. 2020 Nov 1; 35 (11): 2908-2912.

    BackgroundThe aim of this study is to investigate the effect of COVID-19 outbreak on congenital cardiac surgery practice in a single center.MethodsThe first case of COVID-19 in our country was seen on March 11th, 2020. The patients operated between March 11th, 2019-and March 10th, 2020 were taken as the pre-COVID group, and those operated between March 11th and May 11th, 2020 were taken as the COVID group. The data was retrospectively collected, and the two periods were compared.ResultsMonthly average number of cases which was 52 patients/month (626 patients in 12 months) before COVID decreased to 35 patients/month (70 patients in 2 months) during COVID periods (P < .01). During the pre-COVID period the median postoperative length of hospital stay was 3 (IQR: 1-5) days. During the COVID period, this decreased to 1 (IQR: 1-3) day (P < .01). During the pre-COVID period, the hospital expenses of 17% (8/47) of the foreign nationals were covered by their homeland. The remaining 83% (39/47) were paid from the asylum seekers' fund. The proportion of foreign nationals operated significantly decreased during the COVID period ([7%; 47/632 vs 1%; 1/70]; P = .04). No significant difference was observed in terms of STAT mortality scores and categories and postoperative results of the operations performed between the two periods.ConclusionsCongenital cardiac surgery practice can be safely maintained with restricted case volume during the pandemic period. It is alarming that patients in the deprived areas cannot access pediatric cardiac surgery and possibly other health services because of closure of the borders between countries.© 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

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