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. 2022 Nov;32(6):3644-3649.
doi: 10.1177/11206721221080810. Epub 2022 Feb 17.

Incidence and characteristics of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment during coronavirus-19 pandemic: A French study

Agathe Vest  1   2 , Chafik Keilani  1   3   4   5 , Philippe Chaumet-Riffaud  6 , Pierre-Olivier Barale  1 , Eric Tuil  1 , Sarah Ayello-Scheer  1 , Edouard Koch  7 , Samir Abada  8 , Audrey Giocanti-Auregan  9 , Isabelle Durand-Zaleski  10 , Maxime Delbarre  3 , Françoise Froussart-Maille  3 , Amélie Beaugrand  11 , Ramin Tadayoni  12   13 , José-Alain Sahel  1   14 , Michel Paques  1   14
Affiliations

Incidence and characteristics of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment during coronavirus-19 pandemic: A French study

Agathe Vest et al. Eur J Ophthalmol. 2022 Nov.

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown on the number and clinical characteristics of patients with retinal detachment (RD) in a French public university eye hospital.

Methods: Single-center, retrospective non-interventional study. Patients consulting at the emergency room (ER) of Quinze-Vingts Hospital (France) for rhegmatogenous RD before and after instauration of the lockdown were reviewed. We compared the characteristics of patients with RD between the containment period (March17th - April27th,2020) and the period preceding the lockdown (February18th - March16th,2020). We compared the number of RD surgeries performed between the first month of lockdown (March17th - April19th,2020) and the corresponding period of 2019. Number of cases, delay between diagnosis and surgery, visual acuity was measured.

Results: During the first month of lockdown, 59 RDs were operated on, compared to 107 in the corresponding period in 2019 (-44,8%). Mean time from first symptoms to surgery was significantly higher during the lockdown 12.7 (11.3) days vs 7.6 (7.8) days (p = 0.031) before. During the lockdown, the mean BCVA was lower albeit the difference did not reach statistical significance (1.16 (0.9) during pre-containment vs 1.5 (0.9) during containment; p = 0.09). Reasonsfor delayed consultation were: fear of Covid-19 (31%; p = 0.0001), absence of referral doctor (31%; p = 0.003) and difficulties in getting to public transport (10.3%;p = 0.859).

Conclusion: Despite maintaining accessto emergency eye care facilitiesin our hospital, the lockdown affected visual health. Should the lockdown be reinstated, we postulate that a better information about eye care access for non-Covid emergencies may attenuate its effect on visual health.

Keywords: coronavirus – 19; epidemiology; healthcare; lockdown; retinal detachment.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Comparison of the number of RD during COVID-19 pandemic (2020) and 2019.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Number of RD and total ER consultations during COVID-19 pandemic (red arrow corresponds to the beginning of the lockdown).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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