COVID-19 lockdown impact on common general surgical acute presentations to a regional centre in New Zealand.

AIM: New Zealand's stated goal of eradicating COVID-19 included the enforcement of a national lockdown. During this time, a perceived decrease in hospital presentations nationwide was noted. This was also the experience of the Department of General Surgery, Bay of Plenty District Health Board (BOPDHB). We sought to quantify this reduction by analysing the frequency and severity of three common acute general surgical presentations; appendicitis, cholecystitis and diverticulitis. METHODS: Data on presentations of patients with appendicitis, cholecystitis and diverticulitis were retrospectively collected for the national lockdown period (25 March 2020-27 April 2020) and the immediate pre-lockdown period (21 February 2020-25 March 2020). Data collected included patient demographics, duration of symptoms, method of diagnosis, treatment, severity of disease, length of stay and complications. RESULTS: A reduction of 62.2% was noted in the frequency of appendicitis during the lockdown period compared to the pre-lockdown period. Patients presented later during lockdown and had a higher complication rate (5.4% versus 42.8%). Similarly, a 39.2% reduction in presentations of cholecystitis during lockdown was found. The lockdown group of patients had a longer length of stay (6.9 versus 4 days) and only one patient (9.1%, 1/11) was managed with laparoscopic cholecystectomy during the lockdown period, compared to 52.9% of patients (9/17) over the pre-lockdown period. No difference in frequency or severity of acute diverticulitis presentations between the two periods was found. CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 lockdown led to fewer presentations, but these were often delayed, with more complications and a longer length of stay. This could be partly explained by patient fear around exposure to the virus and reluctance to attend hospital. More research is needed to study the flow-on effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on surgical presentations.

Television tip-overs: the Starship Children's Hospital experience and literature review.

BACKGROUND: Injuries sustained from television (TV) sets tipping over onto children are uncommon when compared to other forms of trauma, but because of the weight of some TVs relative to the size of small children, severe and sometimes fatal injuries can result. The international literature is limited in describing this form of trauma and none is available for the Australasian region. AIM: The aims of the present paper are to describe the characteristics and immediate outcomes of children admitted to Starship Children's Hospital following TV tip-overs and review the international literature on this topic. METHODS: Patients admitted to Starship Hospital were identified retrospectively from the Paediatric Trauma database, and the case notes reviewed. Structured telephone interviews were then conducted with each of the families involved. RESULTS: Over the 28-month period (June 2006-October 2008) reviewed, 13 children under 15 years of age were identified, with an almost even sex distribution. 5 required admission to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). 9/13 sustained head injuries and 1 patient died from their injuries. Mechanism of injury was in keeping with behaviour to be expected of toddlers. Parents and caregivers were unaware of the dangers posed by TV sets and no precautions had been taken to prevent injury. CONCLUSIONS: The injuries sustained by children from TV tip-overs are often serious and most commonly involve the head and upper body. This is a common finding in all papers reviewed, but numbers of patients studied are still limited. There is a need for both education of families and improvement in the design of TV sets, to prevent this form of trauma in the paediatric population.