The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Practice of Pathology: Analysis of Specimen Volumes in the Only Pathology Laboratory in the City

Year 2022, Volume: 36 Issue: 2, 151 - 157, 30.08.2022

Sultan Deniz Altındağ

https://doi.org/10.18614/deutip.1174530

Abstract

Objective: One of the measures taken against the COVID-19 pandemic has been the postponement of all non-emergency medical procedures and surgeries in pandemic hospitals. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of pandemic measures on the workload of a city's only pathology laboratory.
Materials and Methods: Data on monthly numbers of the histological, cytological samples, immunohistochemistry and histochemistry stainings belonging to the pathology department were obtained from the laboratory information management system. The monthly specimen volumes were compared with the same month of 2019.
Results: The total number of samples received in our laboratory in March, April and May 2020 decreased by 59.1%, 92.1% and 87.6%, respectively, compared to 2019. Overall specimen volume dropped rapidly in March 2020 and bottomed out in April at 7.8% of our volume in 2019. No lung biopsy was received in the first three months of the pandemic. The second and third sections with the highest decrease were cervical cytology and non-gynaecologic cytology samples (90.7%, 87.6% respectively).
Conclusions: It has been observed that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on the pathology laboratory. Postponement of the non-emergency surgeries, which is one of the first measures taken by hospitals in the face of changes in the number of COVID-19 cases, was reflected in daily pathology practice as a serious decrease in the number of samples. Future studies will show the changes in the diagnostic profile caused by the decrease in the number of elective procedures during the pandemic period.

Keywords

Keywords: Pathology, cytology, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, specimen volumes, workload

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