Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Epilepsy Evaluations in the Pediatric Emergency Department

Status

Completed

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Observational

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT06294977

Enrollment

1000

Registered

2024-03-06

Start date

2022-11-30

Completion date

2022-12-30

Last updated

2024-03-06

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

COVID-19, Emergency Services, Hospital, Epilepsy

Brief summary

Background. Seizures are a common cause of evaluation in the pediatric emergency department (ED). Several studies about the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on ED attendances report a considerable reduction in general pediatric care. The aim of our study was to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on the admission to the pediatric ED for seizures. Materials and methods. We performed a retrospective study to assess the rate of ED admission for seizures at the pediatric ED of the Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico of Milan between January 2017 and December 2021, comparing the pre-pandemic (from January 2017 to February 2020) and pandemic periods (from March 2020 to December 2021).

Interventions

None listed

Study design

Observational model

COHORT

Time perspective

RETROSPECTIVE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

1 Months to 17 Years

Inclusion criteria

* age: 1 months to 17 years * sex: all * with at least one access to the Pediatric ED of the hospital for seizures

Exclusion criteria

* children who received a diagnosis of seizure on admission in triage that was not confirmed at discharge (breath-holding spell, fainting…).

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame
During the study period, 1,091 patients with seizures were admitted to pediatric ED, 776 before the pandemic and 315 during the pandemic. In particular, the evaluation rates per month were 20.4 before the pandemic and 14.3 afterward	the pre-pandemic (from January 2017 to February 2020) and pandemic periods (from March 2020 to December 2021)

Secondary

Measure	Time frame
Patients with a history of previous seizures showed a greater decrease in the monthly number of ED visits compared to those with a first seizure. An increased rate of unprovoked seizures and a decreased rate of provoked ones were observed in the pandemic	the pre-pandemic (from January 2017 to February 2020) and pandemic periods (from March 2020 to December 2021)

Countries

Italy

Outcome results