The impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the utilization of emergency urological services

Abstract

Objectives

To compare the number of patients attending the Urology ED of Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Porto (CHUP), as well as their demographic characteristics, the reasons for admission, the clinical severity under the Manchester triage system (MTS), and the need for emergency surgery or hospitalization, during the pandemic and the equivalent period in 2019. Patients and Methods: Data were collected from patients attending the Urology emergency ward of CHUP during three weeks ‐ from March 11th 2020 to April 1st 2020 ‐ and from the same period the previous year (from March 11th to April 1st 2019).

Results

During the pandemic, 46.4% fewer patients visited our urological ED (122 vs 263). There was no significant difference of the mean age or the number of old patients (with 65 or more years old) between the two periods. However, significantly fewer female patients sought emergency urological services during the COVID‐19 pandemic period (32.7% vs. 14.8%, p<0.05). No significant differences were noted between different clinical severity groups under the MTS. In 2019, significantly less patients required hospitalization. The most common reasons for admission, during both periods, were hematuria, renal colic and urinary tract infections (UTI). The authors recognize that the study has several limitations, namely, those inherent to its retrospective nature.

Conclusion

COVID‐19 significantly influenced people’s urological care‐seeking behaviour. Understanding the present situation is helpful for the prediction of future urological needs. Based on the results of this study, we have reasons to speculate that people’s requirements for urological services might grow explosively in the post‐COVID‐19 period. There should be further studies about the real state of long‐term urological services and the consequences that this pandemic may have in terms of morbimortality not directly related to the virus.