Evaluation of dermatology consultations in the era of COVID‐19

Abstract

It has been reported that dermatology practices may be a vector for SARS-CoV-2 transmission and elective cases should be postponed during the pandemic period. In this context, studies on the change of patient profile in Dermatology outpatient clinic have been conducted. However, there was no study in the literature about dermatology consultations during the pandemic period. One hundred and fortyseven dermatology consultation cases in the era of COVID-19 pandemic between March 11, 2020 and May 4, 2020 were retrospectively evaluated. Twenty-four patients (16.3%) had suspicion and signs of COVID during consultation (fever, cough, shortness of breath, etc.). Nine (37.5%) of these patients also had accompanying COVID-19 skin lesions (two urticarial lesions, two livedo and necrosis, two maculopapular eruption, two vesicular rashes, one pseudo-chilblain). The number of cases that were suspected to have COVID-19 was statistically significantly higher in consultations requested by the emergency department and intensive care unit, while there were no suspected cases in outpatient clinic consultations (P = .001). Two (1.4%) of these patients were diagnosed with COVID-19 confirmed by PCR within 2 weeks. We acknowledge that daily practice changes frequently during this period, but still our study provides a perspective to other dermatology clinics in terms of the requested dermatology consultations during the pandemic.

Profile of teledermatology consultations during the COVID-19 pandemic – An observational study

“…In our study group, young patients aged between 20 and 40 years and residing in an urban environment were the most common participants, which can be attributed to the great availability of high-speed Internet access and heightened medical awareness. In our study, dermatitis and eczema were the most common noninfectious conditions, whereas fungal infections were the most common infectious conditions, which is similar to the profile of dermatological patients in typical outpatient departments, as reported in various studies [10][11][12]. Most of the patients were prescribed the necessary medication online, but 16 were advised to visit an outpatient department as they required a physical examination or procedures such as patch testing, skin biopsy, or dermoscopy.…”

The clinics of HHV ‐6 infection in COVID ‐19 pandemic: Pityriasis rosea and Kawasaki disease

“…COVID-19 has already had many effects on the routine dermatology practice. 5 However, it is clear that there will be many more developments and new information in the relationship between COVID-19 and dermatology in the following days. SARS-CoV-2, which is the cause of COVID-19 disease, is not actually a dermatotrophic virus.…”

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on dermatology practices: Results of a web-based, global survey

“…The dramatic increase in TD use reflects a need to continue providing dermatology care for non-emergent cases and an expectation that TD can significantly reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission ( Temiz et al, 2020 , Gupta et al, 2020 , Lee et al, 2020 , Villani et al, 2020 , Sheriff et al, 2020 ). In this study, video visit was the most common type of TD during pandemic, and WhatsApp messenger the most common platform used ( Jakhar et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Although the immediate effects of the pandemic, including a decrease in patient visits and postponing non-essential procedures, have been documented in a few reports ( Litchman and Rigel, 2020 , Zheng and Lai, 2020 ), the long-term effects have not been assessed. Also, the spectrum and magnitude of changes in dermatology practice during the COVID-19 pandemic have not been evaluated on a large scale ( Temiz et al, 2020 ).…”