Effects of SARS-CoV-2 Emergency Measures on High-Risk Lesions Detection: a Multicentre Cross-Sectional Study

COVID-19 pandemic enforced the interruption of routine endoscopic examinations raising the issue of potential delays in the diagnosis of high-risk lesions. We conducted a multicentre study to assess the decrease of GI and pancreato-biliary high-risk lesions detection consequent to the reduction of the endoscopic activity. The lockdown period was compared to the equivalent timeframe of the previous 3 years. Endoscopic procedures decreased by 72.9% (elective 72.4% and urgent 51.3%); the overall cases of high-grade dysplasia/cancers decreased by 59.1% (23.4% pancreato-biliary cancers; 70.6% and 68.8% upper and lower GI lesions). The postemergency period should aim at limiting high-risk lesions delayed diagnoses. A multicentre, retrospective, cross-sectional study was performed in eight tertiary centres, representative of Northern and Southern Italy, to assess the decrease of GI and pancreato-biliary lesions detected, as a consequence of the reduction of endoscopic procedures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Five were academic centres (62.5%), and all working groups were involved in research activities and training programmes. We collected data from the pandemic lockdown period from 9 March to 4 May (11°−18° week) of 2020, referred as P2; and the equivalent prepandemic period (11°−18° week) of 2019, referred as P1. Data from the corresponding periods of the previous 2 years (2017 and 2018) were also collected in order to assess trends of the last 3 years. Main parameters analysed were: ### Endoscopic procedures The total number of endoscopic procedures performed at the eight centres in P1 was 13 293 (median 1912/centre; IQ 25th–75th: 1135–2691) procedures against 3799 (median 408/centre; IQ 25th–75th: 331–842) performed in P2, thus representing an overall reduction of 71.4% (details shown in figure 1). Figure 1 Percentage reduction of the global activities of the endoscopy units in P2 compared with P1. …