• Lukas Gasteiger, Julia Abram, Sebastian Klein, Pia Tscholl, Tobias Hell, Gabriel Putzer, Berthold Moser, Michael Joannidis, and Judith Martini.
• Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
• Wien. Klin. Wochenschr. 2022 Dec 1; 134 (23-24): 868874868-874.

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic caused an important reduction in surgical activities during the first wave. Aim of this retrospective time-trend analysis was to examine whether also during the second wave in fall and winter 2020/2021 surgical interventions decreased.MethodsAbsolut numbers and types of surgeries in a tertiary university hospital during the second COVID-19 wave in fall/winter 2020/2021 were collected from the surgical planning software and compared with the same time frame over the last 5 years. In a second step, the reduction of surgical interventions during the second wave was compared with the reduction of surgical procedures during the first wave in spring 2020 at the same hospital.ResultsDespite a higher 7‑day incidence of COVID-19 infection and a higher number of patients needing ICU treatment during the second wave, the reduction of surgical interventions was 3.22% compared to 65.29% during the first wave (p < 0.0001). Elective surgical interventions decreased by 88.63% during the first wave compared to 1.79% during the second wave (p < 0.0001). Emergency and oncological interventions decreased by 35.17% during the first wave compared to 5.15% during the second wave (p : 0.0007) and 47.59% compared to 3.89% (p < 0.0001), respectively. Surgical activity reduction in our institution was less pronounced despite higher occupancy of ICU beds during the second COVID-19 wave in fall/winter 2020/2021.ConclusionBetter understanding of the disease, adequate supply of disposables and improved interdisciplinary day by day management of surgical and ICU resources may have contributed to this improvement.© 2022. The Author(s).

11 keywords...

hide…