Impact of delayed oculoplastic consultation during the coronavirus pandemic
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70313/2718.7446.v16.n01.212Keywords:
oculoplasty, coronavirus, COVID-19, health care system, consultation delayAbstract
Objective: The coronavirus pandemic brought about a restructuring of the health system. In this context, the objective was to evaluate the impact of the delay in ophthalmologic consultation in the Oculoplastic section.
Methods: A retrospective, descriptive, case series study was carried out, where the medical records of patients who were seen between March and December 2020, in the Oculoplastic section of the Ophthalmology Service of the Hospital de Clínicas José de San Martín, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, were analyzed. Cases that presented pathologies potentially complicated by the delay in consulting were included and their characteristics and outcome were described.
Results: We found 5 cases with pathologies complicated by the delay in consultation, where all had a total loss of vision, but 3 presented loss of the eyeball requiring evisceration or enucleation surgery, 1 required orbital exenteration and 1 required emergency decompressive surgery for acute optic neuropathy. The anatomic pathologic diagnosis included acute suppurative panophthalmitis in two cases; adenoid cystic carcinoma of the lacrimal gland in another case; chronic dacryocystitis that evolved to endophthalmitis in another case; granulomatous polyangiitis was the last case of a patient who subsequently died.
Conclusions: In 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic stage, 5 patients lost vision in one eye, where possibly the delay in making the consultation in the Oculoplastic section to receive the appropriate treatment could have been determinant.
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