Department of Cardiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children's Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, No.109 Xueyuan West Road, Lucheng District, Wenzhou 325000, Zhejiang, China.
Unità Operativa di Aritmologia ed Elettrofisiologia cardiaca dell'IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele di Milano, Milan, Italy.
Europace. 2020 Dec 23;22(12):1841-1847. doi: 10.1093/europace/euaa185.
To chart the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the activity of interventional electrophysiology services in affected regions.
We reviewed the electrophysiology laboratory records in three affected cities: Wenzhou in China, Milan in Italy, and London in the UK. We inspected catheter lab records and interviewed electrophysiologists in each centre to gather information on the impact of the pandemic on working patterns and on the health of staff members and patients. There was a striking decline in interventional electrophysiology activity in each of the centres. The decline occurred within a week of the recognition of widespread community transmission of the virus in each region and shows a striking correlation with the national figures for new diagnoses of COVID-19 in each case. During the period of restriction, workflow dropped to <5% of normal, consisting of emergency cases only. In two of three centres, electrophysiologists were redeployed to perform emergency work outside electrophysiology. Among the centres studied, only Wenzhou has seen a recovery from the restrictions in activity. Following an intense nationwide programme of public health interventions, local transmission of COVID-19 ceased to be detectable after 18 February allowing the electrophysiology service to resume with a strict testing regime for all patients.
Interventional electrophysiology is vulnerable to closure in times of great social difficulty including the COVID-19 pandemic. Intense public health intervention can permit suppression of local disease transmission allowing resumption of some normal activity with stringent precautions.
探讨 COVID-19 大流行对受影响地区介入电生理服务活动的影响。
我们回顾了中国温州、意大利米兰和英国伦敦三个受影响城市的电生理实验室记录。我们检查了导管实验室的记录，并采访了每个中心的电生理学家，以收集有关大流行对工作模式以及工作人员和患者健康的影响的信息。每个中心的介入电生理学活动都明显减少。这种下降发生在每个地区广泛社区传播病毒的一周内，与每个地区 COVID-19 新诊断病例的全国数据显示出惊人的相关性。在限制期间，工作流程下降到正常水平的<5%，仅包括紧急情况。在三个中心中的两个中心，电生理学家被重新部署到电生理以外的地方进行紧急工作。在所研究的中心中，只有温州看到了活动限制的恢复。在全国范围内开展了密集的公共卫生干预措施后，COVID-19 的本地传播在 2 月 18 日之后停止被检测到，允许电生理服务在对所有患者进行严格检测的情况下恢复。
介入电生理学在包括 COVID-19 大流行在内的社会困难时期容易关闭。强烈的公共卫生干预可以抑制局部疾病传播，在采取严格预防措施的情况下恢复一些正常活动。
