Impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on urological practice in emergency departments in Italy

Changing patterns of urologic emergency visits and admissions during the COVID-19 pandemic: a retrospective, multicenter, nationwide study

“…In 2020, problems with device malfunctions increased by 66%, while all other groups of urologic problems subsided. The distribution of diseases was significantly different between 2019 and 2020 (p = 0.001), which was also noted in a study of Novara et al (n = 399), although in their cohort declines were seen in all disease groups (p = 0.04) [9]. Conversely, in another study from Porto, Portugal (n = 385), a higher proportion of patients visited the ED for administrative and clinical reasons and due to device malfunctions (n = 12 (9.8%) in 2020 and 15 (5.7%) in 2019) [8].…”

“…Furthermore, our study is the first one that has directly aimed to examine the impact of the pandemic on patients complaining about all urologic conditions by analyses of daily mean visits and admissions, crucial laboratory parameters, post-admission procedures, and hospital length of stay. Our analyses revealed lower (22.5%) year-overyear decreases in urologic ED visits, compared to recently published Italian and Portuguese studies, which found over 50% declines during the COVID-19 period [7][8][9][10]. In Poland, the changes were slightly more comparable to more affected countries after the introduction of more severe restrictions on March 25, 2020, with declines up to 34% (Table III).…”

“…In China, Italy, the UK, and the US, initial reports suggest a decrease in visits to emergency departments (EDs) and admissions for urgent cardiac and neurological conditions [1][2][3][4][5]. In Italy and Portugal, there is also evidence of a decrease in ED visits and admissions for urgent urologic conditions but mostly reported in studies of a single center or a short duration [6][7][8][9][10].…”

Implementing Telemedicine for the Management of Benign Urologic Conditions: A Single Centre Experience in Italy

“…The urological daily practice was overwhelmed [2], with a strong reduction both for surgical [3], emergency [4] and outpatients' activities [5]. In particular, the outpatients' visits in Italy were admitted only for urgencies or emergencies [6].…”

To defer or not to defer? A German longitudinal multicentric assessment of clinical practice in urology during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…The deferral of procedures and the fear of virus transmission in a urological department (outpatient or hospital) in combination with social distancing resulted in a further worrisome phenomenon: Novara et al described a 55% decrease of urological consultations in emergency departments after the outbreak of the pandemic in Italy [16]. In contrast, our study confirmed an increase in urological emergency cases, like ureteral stent-placement, but we noticed a distinct reduction of TUR-Bs and primary surgical treatment of testicular cancer.…”