European urology
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The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to an unprecedented emergency scenario for all aspects of health care, including urology. At the time of writing, Italy was the country with the highest rates of both infection and mortality. A panel of experts recently released recommendations for prioritising urologic surgeries in a low-resource setting. ⋯ We found that approximately two-thirds of patients with these cancers do not require high-priority surgery. Conversely, of patients requiring high-priority surgery, approximately one in four is considered at high perioperative risk. These patients may pose challenges in allocation of resources in critical scenarios such as the current COVID-19 pandemic.
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The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has placed considerable strain on hospital resources. We explored whether telemedicine (defined as a videoconference) might help. We undertook prospective structured phone interviews of urological patients (n = 399). ⋯ PATIENT Risk factors for a severe course of coronavirus disease 2019 are common (94.5%) in urology patients. Most patients wished for a telemedical consultation (84.7%). This appears to be a solution to offer contact-free continuity of care.
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Non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer patients with COVID-19 are more likely to develop acute respiratory distress syndrome. Thus, several adjustments to the use of intravesical instillations of bacillus Calmette-Guérin should be made during the current pandemic to limit the risk of contamination.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has had rapid and inevitable effects on health care systems and the training and work plans of urology residents. Smart learning is a valuable strategy for maintaining the learning curve of residents.