{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T14:51:27Z","timestamp":1787064687404,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"20","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,15]],"date-time":"2024-10-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1728950400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Medical University of Wroclaw","award":["SUB.A320.21.053"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["SUB.A320.21.053"]}]},{"name":"Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences","award":["SUB.A320.21.053"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["SUB.A320.21.053"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JCM"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: The COVID-19 pandemic affected the health of millions of people, both directly through infection and indirectly through delayed diagnosis and treatment of non-COVID-19 illnesses. The aim of this study was to check the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the diagnosis and treatment of appendicitis in children. Methods: The study was carried out at the Department of Paediatric Surgery of the Marciniak Hospital (Wroc\u0142aw, Poland) and covered two periods, the pre-pandemic one (P1, 01\/03\/2019\u201329\/02\/2020) and the pandemic one (P2, 01\/03\/2020\u201328\/02\/2021). Results: The number of admissions of patients with suspected appendicitis and observation-only patients decreased during the pandemic (400\/289 and 226\/160, respectively). Although the number of operated children was similar during both analyzed periods (P1: 174, P2: 160), the rate of surgical interventions was significantly higher during P2 (55.4%) than during P1 (43.5%) (\u03c72 test: p = 0.00272). The values of the variables quantifying disease progression and severity of inflammation, selected inflammation-related parameters detected by laboratory blood tests, latencies from the onset of symptoms to the admission and from the admission to the operation, and total duration of hospitalization did not differ significantly between the pre-pandemic and pandemic periods. Conclusions: These results show that the COVID-19 pandemic led to more rigorous and careful triage of pediatric patients suspected of acute appendicitis that did not have a negative impact on patient outcomes.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jcm13206137","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,21]],"date-time":"2024-10-21T07:28:35Z","timestamp":1729495715000},"page":"6137","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["The Advancement of Appendicitis in Children in the Pre-Pandemic and the Pandemic Year"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5483-2126","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marcin Jerzy","family":"Owczarzak","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatric Surgery, Marciniak Hospital, 54-049 Wroc\u0142aw, Poland"},{"name":"Division of Pediatric Traumatology and Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Wroclaw Medical University, 50-345 Wroc\u0142aw, Poland"},{"name":"Department of Pediatric Surgery and Urology, University Hospital, 50-556 Wroc\u0142aw, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3461-193X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mateusz","family":"Biela","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatrics, Endocrinology, Diabetology and Metabolic Diseases, Wroclaw Medical University, 50-368 Wroc\u0142aw, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mateusz","family":"Paplicki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Pediatric Traumatology and Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Wroclaw Medical University, 50-345 Wroc\u0142aw, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2789-5911","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ma\u0142gorzata","family":"R\u0105pa\u0142a","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatric Surgery, Marciniak Hospital, 54-049 Wroc\u0142aw, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Joanna","family":"Jakubaszko-Jab\u0142o\u0144ska","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Pediatric Traumatology and Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Wroclaw Medical University, 50-345 Wroc\u0142aw, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1081-1507","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marzena","family":"Kozakiewicz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Pediatric Traumatology and Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Wroclaw Medical University, 50-345 Wroc\u0142aw, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Piotr","family":"Mi\u015bkiewicz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Pediatric Traumatology and Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Wroclaw Medical University, 50-345 Wroc\u0142aw, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kinga","family":"Niewi\u0144ska","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Pediatric Traumatology and Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Wroclaw Medical University, 50-345 Wroc\u0142aw, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6993-2082","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ewa Joanna","family":"Godzi\u0144ska","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Ethology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jan","family":"Godzi\u0144ski","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatric Surgery, Marciniak Hospital, 54-049 Wroc\u0142aw, Poland"},{"name":"Division of Pediatric Traumatology and Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Wroclaw Medical University, 50-345 Wroc\u0142aw, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"198","DOI":"10.1053\/j.sempedsurg.2016.05.001","article-title":"Overview and Diagnosis of Acute Appendicitis in Children","volume":"25","author":"Glass","year":"2016","journal-title":"Semin. 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