The impact of COVID-19 on delayed presentations of necrotising fasciitis

Quoc Dung Nguyen; Jason Diab; David Khaicy; Vanessa Diab; Zachias Hopkins; Lai Heng Foong; Christophe R Berney

doi:10.1093/jscr/rjac015

The impact of COVID-19 on delayed presentations of necrotising fasciitis

J Surg Case Rep. 2022 Feb 6;2022(2):rjac015. doi: 10.1093/jscr/rjac015. eCollection 2022 Feb.

Authors

Quoc Dung Nguyen^{1

2}, Jason Diab^{1

3}, David Khaicy³, Vanessa Diab³, Zachias Hopkins³, Lai Heng Foong^{1

2}, Christophe R Berney^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital, Bankstown, NSW, Australia.
² The University of New South Wales, Faculty of Medicine, Kensington, NSW, Australia.
³ The University of Notre Dame, School of Medicine, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the delayed presentation of necrotising fasciitis (NF). A retrospective study was conducted of adult patients (≥16 years old) diagnosed with NF at a hospital from 2017 to 2020. A quantitative comparative analysis for the COVID-19 group and control group between 2017 and 2019. Structured interviews were conducted to examine the impact of COVID-19 on patients. There were 6 patients in the COVID-19 group and 10 patients in the control group. The COVID-19 group had a longer mean onset of symptoms till hospital presentation of 4.1 days and a longer mean operative time. The COVID-19 group was more likely to be admitted to intensive care unit. Three patients in the COVID-19 group did not survive compared to survival in the counterparts. Participant responses indicated the COVID-19 pandemic did not prevent them from presenting to ED.

Publication types

Case Reports