J Korean Med Sci.  2022 May;37(21):e173. 10.3346/jkms.2022.37.e173.

Short-Term Impact of Temporary Shutdown of a University-Affiliated Hospital on Patients With Colorectal Cancer During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Surgery, Kyung Hee University Hospital at Gangdong, College of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea
  • 2Department of Surgery, Uijeongbu St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea

Abstract

Owing to in-hospital transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Uijeongbu St. Mary’s Hospital, a university-affiliated hospital in South Korea, was temporarily closed for disinfection in March 2020. This study aimed to investigate the impact of both the hospital shutdown and the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic on short-term outcomes of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. We retrospectively reviewed the clinicopathologic data of 607 patients who were surgically treated for CRC from May 2018 to September 2021. Nodal upstaging, higher lymphatic invasion and abdominoperineal resection rates for 3 months after the hospital resumed surgery following the shutdown in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic were detected, without worse short-term morbidity or mortality. The incidence of adverse pathologic features of CRC such as lymphatic, venous, and perineural invasion was higher throughout the COVID-19 pandemic era. Further follow-up of CRC patients treated in the pandemic era for long-term oncologic outcomes is needed.

Keyword

COVID-19; Colorectal Neoplasm; Neoplasm Staging

Figure

  • Fig. 1 Comparison of proportion of lymphatic, venous and perineural invasion in patients with colorectal cancer according to TNM stage during the pre-pandemic (May 2018–February 2020) vs. the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic (March 2020–September 2021).


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