The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Lockdown on Epilepsy Surgery at a Level Four Epilepsy Center
Abstract number :
1.483
Submission category :
9. Surgery / 9C. All Ages
Year :
2023
Submission ID :
1285
Source :
www.aesnet.org
Presentation date :
12/2/2023 12:00:00 AM
Published date :
Authors :
Presenting Author: Thaddeus Leiphart, – Inova Fairfax Hospital
Mohankumar Kurukumbi, MD – Inova; James Leiphart, MD, PhD – Inova
Rationale: In 2020, the rise of COVID-19 in the United States was responsible for lockdowns across the U.S. and limitations to elective medical procedures. This study was designed to analyze the effects of COVID-19 on epilepsy surgery at our institution.
Methods: For this study, we compared the number of epilepsy surgeries performed each month at Inova Fairfax Hospital in the three years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the two years after the start of the pandemic. We also evaluated for a correlation between the number of new COVID-19 infections in the Northern Virginia area and the number of epilepsy surgeries performed at Inova Fairfax Hospital during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Results: We did not observe a statistically significant difference in the number of epilepsy surgeries performed between the three years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the two years after the start of the pandemic (p > 0.1). We also observed no statistically significant difference in the number of epilepsy surgeries performed between the first four months of the COVID-19 pandemic in which the Virginia area experienced the greatest lockdown restrictions to the same four month period of the three prior years (p > 0.1), but there was a difference in the number of cranial epilepsy surgeries performed comparing those same periods (p < 0.05). We found a positive correlation (p < 0.05) between the incidence of new COVID-19 cases in Northern Virginia and epilepsy surgeries performed at our institution.
Surgery