Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on plastic surgery activities and residency programs in a tertiary referral centre in Iran

Abstract

Background On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the COVID-19 outbreak as a new pandemic. In the meantime, plastic surgeons postponed their appointments due to the fair and rational allocation of medical supplies. These limitations made all junior and senior residents perform operations only on traumatic patients rather than those needing reconstructive procedures. This study aims to determine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on plastic surgery training programs in Iran. Also, the number of canceled surgeries will be determined to see the effects of the pandemic on the patients. Methods This retrospective case study considers a six-month timeframe in two consecutive years before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. For this purpose, the researchers evaluated the number of surgeries, types of procedures, age distribution, and gender distribution. The training program data of plastic surgery residents were collected from their logbooks and then analyzed in IBM SPSS Statistics 26. Differences were considered significant if p < 0.05 at a 95% confidence level. Results The total number of surgeries decreased by 23.5% after the COVID-19 outbreak (p < 0.05). There was a 29.9% reduction in trauma cases, -78.9% in aesthetic surgeries, -17.7% in reconstructive surgeries, -51.8% in craniofacial surgeries, and -59.5%in microscopic surgeries for each resident. Conclusions This study provides an insight into the severity of the pandemic effects on the plastic surgery training programs and the patients. The reduced number of surgeries led to a depletion in surgical skills training. These effects will not wear off immediately after the pandemic; therefore, it is necessary to observe whether the pandemic will have any lasting effects on this subspecialty.

Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the financial revenues of public hospitals with a care centre: case of the Yaoundé Central Hospital

“…From March to August 2020, there was an average reduction of 14% in surgical interventions at Yaoundé Central Hospital compared to the same period the previous year. This result is lower than that found in a study conducted in Iran in 2021( 10 ), which reported a 23.5% decrease in the total number of surgeries during the pandemic. Our results are similarly lower than those found in a study conducted in Germany in 2020 by Haffer et al ( 11 ), which noted a 49.4% decrease in the total number of trauma and orthopaedic surgeries during the pandemic.…”

Surgical Protocols before and after COVID-19—A Narrative Review

“…The pandemic’s long-term effect on the practises of plastic surgery, however, is still unknown, which necessitates more research in this regard. The significant reduction in craniofacial surgeries observed in this study also agrees with an investigation done by Kalantar et al [ 29 ]. The investigators attributed this decrease in the riskiness of the surgical site because the pharynx and upper digestive tract are where sick people often have the highest virus loads [ 30 ].…”

Impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic on the Patterns and Characteristics of Plastic Surgery Practice: A Retrospective Comparative Study of Before and During the Pandemic

“…A significant reduction in the rate of craniofacial surgeries was also observed in this study. This finding is consistent with that of a similar study that reported a 52% reduction in craniofacial surgeries [ 12 ]. This might be attributed to the riskiness of the operative area, as infected individuals tend to have the highest viral load in the pharynx and upper aerodigestive tract [ 17 ].…”

“…The reduction was particularly remarkable during the lockdown period from March 25 to June 21, 2020, with a reduction rate of 94.44%. This finding is consistent with other similar studies conducted in Iran and southern India, where a significant decline in the number of plastic surgeries conducted after the pandemic was reported [ 8 , 12 ]. The reduction in the admission rate is thought to be partly due to the hospital's policy of prioritizing urgent and emergent cases and partly because of patients' fear of contracting COVID-19 infection in the hospital.…”