Vishwakarma Kuldeep, Khakhla Deepakkumar Hamirbhai, Ambereen Aafiya, Rawat Saurabh Kumar, Mishra Prabhaker, Shukla Bharat
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Apex Trauma Centre, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, India.
Swastik Pain Center, Surat, Gujarat, India.
Natl J Maxillofac Surg. 2021 May-Aug;12(2):219-226. doi: 10.4103/njms.NJMS_263_20. Epub 2021 Jul 15.
The Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted oral and maxillofacial (OMF) surgeons' practice globally. We implemented a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based survey among the OMF surgeons of India.
The objectives of the study were (1) gathering data among the maxillofacial surgeons in terms of their occupational exposure and access to adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) and (2) to estimate how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the practice of OMF surgeons in India.
Complete responses of 178 OMF surgeons were included in the study. Descriptive and analytic statistics were computed. The level of statistical significance was set at < 0.05. Binary logistic regression models were created to assess the predictors of the impact of the COVID-19.
Out of the 178 respondents of the study, most (37.1%) were following their hospital's guidelines. Most had access to adequate PPE (89.9%), whereas 93.8% had COVID-19 testing available. One hundred and thirty-three (74.7%) surgeons were involved in teleconsultation. Ninety-two (51.7%) and 166 (93.3%) were involved in elective surgery and emergency surgeries, respectively. Median outpatient department cases and number of surgeries done per week reduced by 73.9% and 66.7% ( < 0.001), respectively. Most surgeons (86%) experienced that cost of treatment had increased during the COVID. Over 75% were afraid to get infected with COVID, whereas 44.9% were anxious to lose the income. More than 56% of the OMF surgeons reported a fall in income and 94% reported decreased productivity in academic research. Most surgeons (93.8%) believed that COVID had a positive impact on human behavior in terms of hand hygiene.
The impact of COVID-19 among OMF surgeons has adversely affected clinical practice, personal lives, and academic productivity and has catalyzed an exponential increase of telemedicine. Future surveys should capture the long-term impact of COVID-19.
2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行扰乱了全球口腔颌面外科医生的执业。我们对印度的口腔颌面外科医生开展了一项基于问卷调查的横断面研究。
本研究的目的是（1）收集颌面外科医生职业暴露及获得充足个人防护装备（PPE）的相关数据，以及（2）评估COVID-19大流行对印度口腔颌面外科医生执业的影响。
本研究纳入了178名口腔颌面外科医生的完整回复。进行了描述性和分析性统计。设定统计学显著性水平为<0.05。建立二元逻辑回归模型以评估COVID-19影响的预测因素。
在本研究的178名受访者中，大多数（37.1%）遵循医院的指南。大多数人可获得充足的PPE（89.9%），而93.8%的人可进行COVID-19检测。133名（74.7%）外科医生参与了远程会诊。分别有92名（51.7%）和166名（93.3%）参与了择期手术和急诊手术。门诊病例中位数和每周手术例数分别减少了73.9%和66.7%（<0.001）。大多数外科医生（86%）认为COVID期间治疗费用增加。超过75%的人害怕感染COVID，而44.9%的人担心失去收入。超过56%的口腔颌面外科医生报告收入下降，94%的人报告学术研究生产力下降。大多数外科医生（93.8%）认为COVID在手部卫生方面对人类行为有积极影响。
COVID-19对口腔颌面外科医生的影响对临床实践、个人生活和学术生产力产生了不利影响，并促使远程医疗呈指数级增长。未来的调查应了解COVID-19的长期影响。
