Effects of COVID-19 Outbreak on Emergency Surgeries for Occlusive Colorectal Cancers

Abstract

Aim:Coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Since the CoV-19 outbreak, public health has been affected in several areas, especially, mortality from malignancies has increased. Colorectal cancers (CRCs) is the third-most common cause of cancer-related deaths across the world. The present study aimed to investigate the time of CRC patients’ admission to hospital and its effects in the light of COVID-19 outbreak.Method:We examined the case of 62 patients who visited our hospital emergency department with intestinal obstruction due to CRC between 2019 and 2020. We categorised the patients admitted during the COVID-19 pandemic as group 1 and the others as group 2. We comparatively evaluated the demographic data, complaints and duration, tumour characteristics, blood values, complications, mortality rates and the length of hospital stay of the patients. We noted that the duration of admission to the hospital was prolonged after the patients developed obstructive symptoms.Results:As incidences of nausea/vomiting became more frequent, the duration of admission to the hospital after the complaints began and the resultant mortality rate were statistically higher among the group 1 patients. The haematocrit (htc) value was lower and the tumour size was larger in the deceased patients.Conclusion:COVID-19 pandemic delayed the diagnosis of patients with colorectal cancer. The time that elapsed after occlusion in CRC increased the rate of mortality and morbidity. It was observed that, especially, mortality was higher for elderly patients with low htc values. This increase in the mortality rates suggests the importance of the time of admission to the hospital in case of obstructive CRC. We thus believe that it is essential to propagate that the hospitals are safe from COVID to encourage the public to avail hospital services for serious cases in order to ensure timely diagnosis and treatment.

Keywords

• colorectal cancer
• covid-19
• mortality
• occlusion