The Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Acute Appendicitis Presentation

Background: Acute appendicitis is the most frequent emergency abdominal condition in general surgical practice. Appendectomy can be performed as open surgery or laparoscopically. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the highly contagious viral illness caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), differing in the diagnosis.

Aim of the study: To analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the time elapsed between onset of symptoms and diagnosis of Acute Appendicitis and the effect of this delay on disease progression.

Methods: A prospective study was conducted in the Department of General Surgery at surgical ward in Baghdad Teaching Hospital during the period of one year from first of July 2020 till first of July 2021. A hundred patients were enrolled in this study.

Results: This study included 100 patients complained from acute appendicitis, divided into two groups 52 of them were COVID-19 positive and 48 of them COVID-19 were negative patients. The mean time elapsed from onset of symptoms to surgical intervention was (73.44 hours) in COVID-19 positive patients versus mean (28.56 hours) in COVID-19 negative patients, and the

results were statistically significant (p<0.0001). Total patients who presented with complicated appendicitis were (36), 26 of them were COVID-19 positive, of them 8 patients presented with perforation.

Conclusion: The increase in complicated cases of acute appendicitis seems to be associated with the delay from time of symptoms onset to surgical intervention.