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Review
. 2020 Sep 28;26(36):5387-5394.
doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i36.5387.

COVID-19 pandemic and challenges in pediatric gastroenterology practice

Jamal Kriem  1 , Riad Rahhal  2
Affiliations
Review

COVID-19 pandemic and challenges in pediatric gastroenterology practice

Jamal Kriem et al. World J Gastroenterol. .

Abstract

The current coronavirus pandemic is imposing unpreceded challenges to the practice of pediatric gastroenterology. These are highlighted in their impact on performing aerosol-generating endoscopy procedures and the need to accommodate longer room turnaround time for disinfection, ensuring appropriate and consistent safety measures for patients, staff and providers, and emphasizing the importance for screening patients for active coronavirus disease (COVID) infection before endoscopy when possible. Pediatric patients are less likely to exhibit severe COVID-related symptoms so survey-based screening would not be a sensitive measure to identify patients with active infections. To address the restrictions of patients coming for face to face clinic encounters, there has been rapid expansion of telehealth services in a very short time period with several difficulties encountered. To survive these challenges, pediatric gastroenterology practices need to adapt and accept flexibility in clinical operations with ongoing commitment to safety for patients and healthcare workers.

Keywords: Coronavirus; Endoscopy; Gastroenterology; Pandemic; Pediatric; Screening; Telehealth.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Impact of coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on actual number of pediatric gastroenterology encounters. Drastic reductions in procedures (black) and face-to-face clinic encounters (red) and with surge in telehealth encounters (green and blue) noted in April 2020.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Percent changes in pediatric gastroenterology procedures and face-to-face encounters due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic as compared to same period the prior year.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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