Abstract: Trabalho Final do Mestrado Integrado em Medicina apresentado à Faculdade de Medicina ; Introduction and objectives: COVID-19 significantly affected the use of healthcare worldwide and, consequently, admissions to hospital emergency services. The aim of this study is to characterize the activity of the Paediatric Emergency Service of a tertiary hospital during the pandemic.Methods: Single-center, retrospective cohort study with analysis of paediatric emergency services visits, from March 30 to June 30, 2020 and comparison with the same periods in the previous 3 years (2017-2019).Results: 53.883 episodes were analysed, with a median age of 5.8 years (Interquartil range: 2.0-11.6) with a slight predominance of males (53%).In 2020, the total number of admissions decreased by about 60% (p<0.001). Comparing the 2020 values with the average values from 2017 to 2019, there was an increase in the percentage of neonates (2.0% vs 0.9%, p<0.001) and referral by National Health Service Contact Center (18.5% vs 5.4%, p<0.001) and National Institute of Medical Emergency (5.1% vs 4.2%, p<0.001), with a reduction in patients who sought hospital care by their own initiative (65.5% vs 78.6%, p<0.001). According to the triage priority, non-urgent patients increased (7.5% vs 1.7%, p<0.001) and urgent patients decreased (31.2% vs 38.3%, p<0.001). There was a significant decrease (p<0.001) in school accidents (0.4% vs 7.1%) and sports accidents (0.1% vs 1.2%) and a significant increase (p <0.001) in personal accidents (6.3% vs 4,3%), falls (5.2% vs 1.7%), burns (0.4% vs 0.2%) and dog bites (0.3% vs 0.1%). The ratio of patients observed by Paediatric Surgery increased (10.0% vs 5.3%, p<0.001) and the patients observed by Ophthalmology (1.7% vs 2.2%), Orthopaedics (9.4% vs 13.2%) and Pedopsychiatry (0.7% vs 1.2%) decreased (p<0.001). There was a higher hospitalization rate (5.7% vs 3.1%, p<0.001).1.610 patients were tested for SARS-CoV-2 of whom 1.1% were positive, all with mild illness or ...
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