Apendicitis aguda durante la pandemia de COVID-19: experiencia en un centro de alta complejidad en Boyacá, Colombia

Introduction. The COVID-19 pandemic varied the way health systems were attended, thus affecting pathologies not related to respiratory infections, such as acute appendicitis. Fear of SARS-CoV-2 infection and mobility restrictive measures may have implied a longer time from the onset of symptoms to consultation of the emergency department, leading to intraoperative and postoperative complications. Methods. Retrospective cross-sectional descriptive observational study, identifying all patients diagnosed with acute appendicitis and taken for appendectomy, divided into two groups, considered pre-pandemic, from September 1, 2018 to March 15, 2020, and pandemic, from March 16, 2020 to September 30, 2021. Results. One-thousand patients were identified, 501 patients were distributed in the pre-pandemic group and 499 in the pandemic group. The average consultation time from the time of onset of symptoms to consultation was 43 hours in the pre-pandemic group and almost 45 hours in the pandemic. Discussion. Despite the restrictions due to the disease caused by the new coronavirus and the fear that may existed due to contagion, in our center there was no evidence of a change in the management and presentation of patients diagnosed with acute appendicitis.