The Evaluation of the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Urologic Emergencies

Objective: Evaluating the impact of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on emergency urology patient profile and assessment of the approach to these patients.
Methods: Records were kept on the age, gender, application time, reason for application, comorbidities, hospitalization requirement, hospitalization duration, anticoagulant use, places of residence, complications, and treatment approaches for emergency urology patients with urological consultation requirement. The period between March 11, 2020 when the first COVID-19 case was encountered in Turkey and June 01, 2020 when the transition to gradual social life started was defined as the “COVID period”, whereas the period between March 11, 2019-June 01, 2019 was defined as the "non-COVID period" parameters for both periods were compared via statistical methods.
Results: A total of 63 patients applied during the non-COVID period, whereas 27 patients applied during the COVID period. A statistically significant difference was not observed between the two periods about age, gender, time of application, reason for application, and treatment approach for the patients (p>0.05). However, it was determined during the COVID period that hospitalization duration decreased (p=0.027), number of applications of patients using anticoagulants increased (p=0.015), and the number of patients from rural areas decreased at a statistically significant level (p=0.023). No statistically significant difference was observed between the interventional and medical treatment approaches (p=0.28). No complications were observed during either period.
Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic is a process in which urological emergency applications, the ratio of patients coming from rural areas, and the hospitalization duration decrease.