Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Italian Humanitarian Congenital Cardiac Surgery Activity: What No One Tells You.
COVID-19
cardiac surgery
congenital heart diasease
cooperation
developing countries
health
humanitarian medicine
Journal
Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine
ISSN: 2297-055X
Titre abrégé: Front Cardiovasc Med
Pays: Switzerland
ID NLM: 101653388
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
2021
2021
Historique:
received:
04
05
2021
accepted:
05
07
2021
entrez:
16
8
2021
pubmed:
17
8
2021
medline:
17
8
2021
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
More than 4 millions of children with congenital heart disease (CHD) are waiting for cardiac surgery around the world. Few of these patients are treated only thanks to the support of many non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Starting in December 2019, the so-called coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has rapidly become a worldwide pandemic and has dramatically impacted on all the international humanitarian activities for congenital heart disease. We analyzed data from all the Italian congenital cardiac surgery centers with the aim to quantify the impact of the pandemic on their charities. Fifteen Italian centers participated in the study and contributed to data collection. We analyzed and compared data regarding humanitarian activities carried out abroad and on site from two periods: year 2019 (pre-COVID-19) and year 2020 (COVID-19 pandemic). In 2019, 53 international missions were carried out by Italian congenital cardiac surgeons, resulting in the treatment of 471 CHD patients. In the same period 11 Italian cardiac centers operated on 251 foreign patients in Italy. In 2020, the pandemic led to a reduction of this activity by 96% for the surgery performed overseas and 86% for the interventions carried out in Italy. In conclusion our study shows the important quantitative impact of the pandemic on the Italian humanitarian cardiac surgical activity overseas and in Italy. This shocking result highlights the failure of the systems adopted so far to solve the problem of CHD in developing countries.
Identifiants
pubmed: 34395564
doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2021.705029
pmc: PMC8355370
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Pagination
705029Informations de copyright
Copyright © 2021 Giamberti, Caldaroni, Varrica, Pace Napoleone, Marianeschi, Uricchio, Vanini, Santoro, Luciani, Stellin, Gargiulo, Murzi, Filippelli, Oppido, Agati, Galletti and Frigiola.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
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