Pediatric emergency department visits during the COVID-19 pandemic: a large retrospective population-based study (original) (raw)

Italian Journal of Pediatrics

Background COVID-19 pandemic has stretched healthcare system capacities worldwide and deterred people from seeking medical support at Emergency Departments (ED). Nevertheless, population-based studies examining the consequences on children are lacking. Methods All ED visits from 2019 to 2020 in Veneto, Italy (4.9 million residents) were collected. Anonymized records of pediatric (≤14 years) ED visits included patient characteristics, arrival mode, triage code, clinical presentation, and discharge mode. Year-on-year variation of the main ED visit characteristics, and descriptive trends throughout the study period have been examined. Results Overall, 425,875 ED presentations were collected, 279,481 in 2019, and 146,394 in 2020 (− 48%), with a peak (− 79%) in March–April (first pandemic wave), and a second peak (below − 60%) in November–December (second pandemic wave). Burn or trauma, and fever were the two most common clinical presentations. Visits for nonurgent conditions underwent t...