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Observational Study
. 2021 Nov 27;21(1):408.
doi: 10.1186/s12886-021-02169-x.

Ocular related emergencies in Spain during the COVID-19 pandemic, a multicenter study

Martín Puzo  1   2 , Jorge Sánchez-Monroy  3   4 , Carmen A Porcar-Plana  5 , Francisco de Asís Bartol-Puyal  3   4   6 , Marina Dotti-Boada  7 , Pilar Peña-Urbina  8 , Jordi Izquierdo-Serra  7 , Ana López-Montero  9 , Pilar Pérez-García  8 , Daniel Bordonaba-Bosque  10 , Luis E Pablo  3   4   6 , Pilar Calvo  3   4
Affiliations
Observational Study

Ocular related emergencies in Spain during the COVID-19 pandemic, a multicenter study

Martín Puzo et al. BMC Ophthalmol. .

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate ophthalmological emergencies (OE) during the COVID-19 pandemic comparing them with the same period of the previous year.

Methods: Retrospective observational study of all OE visits in four tertiary hospitals in Spain comparing data from March 16th to April 30th, 2020 (COVID-19 period) and the same period of 2019 (pre-COVID-19 period). Severity of the conditions was assessed following Channa et al. publication. Data on demographics, diagnosis and treatments were collected from Electronic Medical Records.

Results: During lockdown, OE significantly declined by 75.18%, from 7,730 registered in the pre-COVID-19 period to 1,928 attended during the COVID-19 period (p < 0.001). In 2019, 23.86% of visits were classified as emergent, 59.50% as non-emergent, and 16.65% could not be determined. In 2020, the percentage of emergent visits increased up to 29.77%, non-emergent visits significantly decreased to 52.92% (p < 0.001), and 17.31% of the visits were classified as "could not determine". During the pandemic, people aged between 45 and 65 years old represented the largest attending group (37.89%), compared to 2019, where patients over 65 years were the majority (39.80%). In 2019, most frequent diagnosis was unspecified acute conjunctivitis (11.59%), followed by vitreous degeneration (6.47%), and punctate keratitis (5.86%). During the COVID-19 period, vitreous degeneration was the first cause for consultation (9.28%), followed by unspecified acute conjunctivitis (5.63%) and punctate keratitis (5.85%).

Conclusions: OE visits dropped significantly during the pandemic in Spain (75.18%), although more than half were classified as non-urgent conditions, indicating a lack of understanding of the really emergent ocular pathologies among population.

Keywords: COVID-19; Emergency department; Epidemiology; Ophthalmological emergencies.

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Conflict of interest statement

None of the authors have any proprietary interests or conflicts of interest related to this submission.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Number of visits per day during both periods. W: weekends
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Comparison between the number of visits in each hospital per year. HCB: Hospital Clinic Barcelona; HCSC: Hospital Clínico San Carlos; HCV: Hospital Clínico Valencia; HUMS: Hospital Universitario Miguel Servet
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Comparison between age groups in both periods
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Comparison between the severity of the OE in both periods
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Destination at discharge and treatment received in both periods
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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