Patients avoided important care during the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic: diverticulitis patients were more li
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Patients avoided important care during the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic: diverticulitis patients were more likely to present with an abscess on CT Michael P. Zintsmaster 1
&
Daniel T. Myers 1
Received: 10 June 2020 / Accepted: 22 September 2020 # American Society of Emergency Radiology 2020
Abstract Purpose To evaluate the frequency with which patients with an urgent health concern, specifically diverticulitis, avoided appropriate medical care during the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 and to study the consequences of the resultant delay in care, the incidence of an associated abscess. Methods This study was institutional review board approved. Reports for CT studies with findings of newly diagnosed diverticulitis within Henry Ford Health System during the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 were reviewed and compared with the same time period in 2019. Total cases of diverticulitis on CT were compared, as well as the prevalence of an associated abscess. A chi-squared analysis was performed to determine the statistical significance of the percentage of patients presenting with an abscess in each year. Results During the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic, 120 patients were identified with CT findings of newly diagnosed diverticulitis with 11.7% of those patients (14 patients) presenting with an associated abscess. During the same time period in 2019, many more CT studies with newly diagnosed diverticulitis were obtained (339), and, compared to 2020, less than half the percentage of those patients had an associated abscess (4.4% or 15 patients). Conclusion Patients with urgent health concerns avoided appropriate and necessary care during the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic. While non-COVID-19 emergency visits were diminished, patients who did present with diverticulitis were more likely to present with greater disease severity as manifested by an associated abscess. Patients must be encouraged to seek care when appropriate and need reassurance that hospitals and their emergency departments are safe to visit. Furthermore, emergency physicians and radiologists in particular should be vigilant during times when emergency volumes are low, such as a future surge in coronavirus patients, other pandemics, snow storms, and holidays as the patients who do present for care are more likely to present at later stages and with serious complications. Keywords COVID . COVID-19 . Coronavirus . Diverticulitis . Abscess . Emergency . Delay . Pandemic
Introduction The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 has undoubtedly resulted in serious consequences both directly and indirectly [1–3]. Millions of people across the world have been infected, and
* Michael P. Zintsmaster [email protected] Daniel T. Myers [email protected] 1
Department of Radiology, Henry Ford Health System, 2799 W Grand Blvd, Detroit, MI 48202, USA
at the time of this paper, hundreds of thousands have died [4]. In addition to the health consequences of COVID-19, there has been an economic cost
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