How COVID-19 Pandemic Changed Children and Adolescents Use of the Emergency Department: the Experience of a Secondary Ca
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COVID-19
How COVID-19 Pandemic Changed Children and Adolescents Use of the Emergency Department: the Experience of a Secondary Care Pediatric Unit in Central Italy Francesco Vierucci 1 Angelina Vaccaro 1
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Caterina Bacci 1,2 & Cristina Mucaria 2 & Francesca Dini 1 & Giovanni Federico 3 & Michela Maielli 4 &
Accepted: 17 September 2020 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Italy was the first European country hit by SARS-CoV-2 infection, particularly northern regions. After the beginning of national lockdown (March 9th, 2020), we observed a significant decrease in pediatric emergency department consultations (daily pediatric visits; pre-lockdown, 16 (11–22); lockdown, 3 (1–3); phase 2, 3 (3–5), p < 0.0001). On the other hand, the percentage of children discharged right after pediatric visit significantly decreased from 80% in January to 50% in April. After March 9th, we registered a change in the diagnoses of emergency department visits, with an increase in the percentage of non-infectious acute conditions and a decrease in infectious diseases, with two cases of a noteworthy delayed access to hospital care. We performed a retrospective analysis of consultations requested to our pediatric unit for children and adolescents referred to the general Emergency Department of San Luca Hospital of Lucca (Tuscany, Central Italy) from January 1st to May 31st, 2020. We split data in two different time periods according to consultations performed before (January 1st–March 8th) and after the beginning of lockdown (March 9th–May 31st). Analyzing the number of children hospitalized from January to May 2020 in comparison with the same period in 2019, a decreased hospitalization became evident after March (March − 74.6%, April − 71.6%, May − 58.6%). Nasopharyngeal
What is Known: Italy was the first European country hit by SARS-CoV-2 infection. Published preliminary Italian data confirmed a general favorable clinical course of COVID-19 in childhood. What is New: Even if COVID-19 pandemic more seriously affected Northern Italy, the admission of children and adolescents to pediatric emergency services significantly changed also in Central Italy with reduced demand and increased appropriateness. This article is part of the Topical Collection on Covid-19 Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s42399-020-00532-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Francesco Vierucci [email protected] Caterina Bacci [email protected] Cristina Mucaria [email protected] Francesca Dini [email protected]
Giovanni Federico [email protected] Michela Maielli [email protected] Angelina Vaccaro [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
SN Compr. Clin. Med.
swabs done in 115 children showed only one case of COVID-19. Even if COVID-19 outbreak more seriously affected Northern Italy, utilization of pediatric emergency
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