[Has the COVID19 Pandemic Changed the Emergency Situation in German Clinics? A Nationwide Analysis of Routine Data from 73 Acute Hospitals].

COVID-19 has led to profound changes in the world as we have known it. Due to the sharp increase in intensive care, COVID patients, elective admissions and interventions have been postponed. But emergencies such as myocardial infarction have also decreased. The present study deals with the effects of the COVID pandemic on visceral surgical emergencies on the basis of 5 indicator operations. Routine data from 73 acute hospitals of the Helios Group were evaluated for this purpose. The interventions that were carried out between March 13, 2020 and March 12, 2021 were included. The data was compared with the period from March 13, 2019 to March 12, 2020. The number of interventions in serious emergencies (ileus, mesenteric ischemia and ulcer perforation) has remained constant. However, the length of stay in hospital in the pandemic year 2020 was significantly shorter than in the reference year 2019. The number of cholecystectomies and appendectomies in the pandemic year was significantly lower than in the reference year 2019. The outcome parameters intensive care, invasive ventilation and hospital mortality were comparable for the two periods for these interventions.