Change in the admission and condition of emergency department patients with abdominal pain during the COVID-19 pandemic - Single-center experience

Tokarczyk, Urszula; Śliwa, Anna; Nowak, Łukasz; Sutkowska, Karolina; Kaliszewski, Krzysztof

Objective The aim of this study was to analyze the condition of patients reporting abdominal pain (AP) as the main symptom and to find out whether the number of admissions to the Emergency Department (ED) because of AP has changed during the first lockdown phase in 2020 based on a single-center experience in Poland. Methods We retrospectively investigated the number and condition of patients who were admitted to the ED with AP symptoms from 1 March to 31 May 2019 and 2020. Patients’ data was assembled from the Emergency Department of University Hospital in Wroclaw, Poland. Generic data included the following characteristics: sex, age, AP as the main complaint, and medical triage tag color. The specific data included complete blood count parameters. Results There was a decrease in the number of admitted patients to the ED from March to May 2019 in comparison to the same period in 2020. Patients reported themselves to the ED less frequently or later than usually, however, they did not present with worse blood parameters than in the previous year. Conclusion The COVID-19 outbreak shows that solutions must be found to form higher sanitary and infection-control standards and improve the functioning of the ED during a pandemic.