Effects of the COVID‐19 pandemic on inpatient skin surgery in Germany: results of the DESSI‐survey

Abstract

Background:The aim of the survey was to investigate a possible impairment of inpatient dermatological and dermatosurgical care in Germany due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: An online survey on the impact of pandemic-related measures on inpatient care was sent to all German dermatology clinics. Only one person per clinic was asked to participate. Data analysis was mainly descriptive. Differences between university hospitals and non-university hospitals were calculated using the Chi-square test. Results: From the 113 dermatological clinics with inpatient care, we received 45 (39.8%) at least partially completed questionnaires. Of these, 25 (55.6%) came from university hospitals, 18 (40.0%) from teaching hospitals of a university, 1 (2.2%) from a non-teaching hospital, and 1 (2.2%) from a participant who did not provide any information on his facility. More than half of survey participants (57.8%) reported that many elective skin surgeries had to be canceled at their clinics at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, most of the clinics (75.6%) were able to perform medically necessary surgeries (such as for malignant melanoma). Only 28.9% (13/45) of participants reported that skin surgery in their clinics returned to full strength after the COVID-19 pandemic. There was no statistically significant difference between university hospitals and non-university hospitals regarding the influence of COVID-19-related restrictions. Conclusions: Despite their heterogeneity, the results of the survey show an overall clear and long-term pandemic-related impairment of inpatient dermatology and skin surgery in Germany.

Prioritizing Melanoma Surgeries to Prevent Wait Time Delays and Upstaging of Melanoma during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Existing literature suggests that melanoma overall staging and histological prognostic features have worsened since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ]. For instance, a four-year Romanian study (2018–2022) that did not report the use of a prioritization system showed higher Breslow thickness and more stage-III patients during the pandemic [ 20 ].…”

“…Fu et al, 2023, have also reported worse short-term survival for Ontario melanoma patients during the pandemic in 2020 [9]. Several international studies have also shown that patients have presented with higher-stage melanoma since the start of the pandemic [10][11][12][13][14]; however, there is a scarcity of studies assessing wait times to melanoma surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic. No studies to date have explored the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on melanoma surgical management, wait times, and staging in Canada.…”

Reconstruction of a centrally located transmural defect of the cavum conchae using a retroauricular rotation flap combined with a preauricular pedicled flap

“…3 A recent study could show that inpatient care of dermatosurgical patients -with the exception of cases with very large, fast-growing, or painful tumors -was also significantly restricted during the pandemic. 4 The suspected increase in tumor thickness associated with a reduced early detection and treatment of epithelial tumors was recently illustrated for a German population. 5 Following micrographically controlled excision of larger epithelial skin tumors, the surgeon is confronted with large wound defects that require extensive reconstruction.…”

Rekonstruktion eines transmuralen Defekts des Cavum conchae mittels retroaurikulärer Rotationsplastik kombiniert mit gestieltem Lappen von präaurikulär

“…3 Eine aktuelle Untersuchung konnte zeigen, dass auch die stationäre Versorgung dermatochirurgischer Patienten -mit Ausnahme sehr großer, schnell wachsender oder schmerzhafter Tumoren -während der Pandemie deutlich eingeschränkt war. 4 Die mit der reduzierten Früherkennung und Versorgung epithe-This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.…”