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Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on thyroidectomy for malignant diseases in high-volume referral centers

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Abstract

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has limited the availability of healthcare resources for non-COVID patients and decreased elective surgeries, including thyroidectomy. Despite the prioritization of surgical procedures, it has been reported that thyroidectomy for thyroid cancer (TCa) was adversely impacted. We assessed the impact of the pandemic on the surgical activities of two high-volume referral centers.

Materials and methods

Patients operated at two National Referral Centers for Thyroid Surgery between 03/01/2020 and 02/28/2021 (COVID-19 period) were included (P-Group). The cohort was compared with patients operated at the same Centers between 03/01/2019 and 02/29/2020 (pre-COVID-19 pandemic) (C-Group).

Results

Overall, 7017 patients were included: 2782 in the P-Group and 4235 in the C-Group. The absolute number of patients with TCa was not significantly different between the two groups, while the rate of malignant disease was significantly higher in the P-Group (1103/2782 vs 1190/4235) (P < 0.0001). Significantly more patients in the P-Group had central (237/1103 vs 232/1190) and lateral (167/1103 vs 140/1190) neck node metastases (P = 0.001). Overall, the complications rate was significantly lower (11.9% vs 15.1%) and hospital stay was significantly shorter (1.7 ± 1.5 vs 1.9 ± 2.2 days) in the P-Group (P < 0.05).

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly decreased the overall number of thyroidectomies but did not affect the number of operations for TCa. Optimization of management protocols, due to limited resource availability for non-COVID patients, positively impacted the complication rate and hospital stay.

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Funding

All the authors declare that have received no funding for this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Endocrine and Metabolic Surgery, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario “Agostino Gemelli” - IRCCS, 00168, Rome, Italy

    Marco Raffaelli, Giuseppe Marincola, Francesca Zotta & Rocco Bellantone

  2. Centro di Ricerca in Chirurgia delle Ghiandole Endocrine e dell’Obesità, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 00168, Rome, Italy

    Marco Raffaelli, Carmela De Crea, Alfredo Pontecorvi & Rocco Bellantone

  3. Division of Endocrine and Obesity Surgery, Fondazione Istituto G. Giglio, Contrada Pietrapollastra-Pisciotto, 90015, Cefalù, PA, Italy

    Luca Sessa

  4. Division of Endocrine Surgery, Fatebenefratelli Isola Tiberina - Gemelli Isola, 00186, Rome, Italy

    Carmela De Crea & Milena Pia Cerviere

  5. Department of Surgical, Medical, Molecular Pathology and Critical Area, Endocrine Surgery Unit, Pisa University Hospital, 56124, Pisa, Italy

    Carlo Enrico Ambrosini, Benard Gjeloshi, Luigi De Napoli, Leonardo Rossi & Gabriele Materazzi

  6. Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Endocrine Unit, Pisa University Hospital, 56124, Pisa, Italy

    Rossella Elisei

  7. Division of Endocrinology, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario “Agostino Gemelli”-IRCCS, 00168, Rome, Italy

    Alfredo Pontecorvi

  8. Department of Surgical, Medical, Molecular Pathology and Critical Area, Pathology Unit, Pisa University Hospital, 56124, Pisa, Italy

    Fulvio Basolo

  9. Division of Anatomic Pathology and Histology, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario “Agostino Gemelli”-IRCCS, 00168, Rome, Italy

    Esther Diana Rossi

Authors
  1. Marco Raffaelli
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  2. Luca Sessa
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  3. Carmela De Crea
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  5. Giuseppe Marincola
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  6. Francesca Zotta
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  10. Leonardo Rossi
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  11. Rossella Elisei
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  13. Fulvio Basolo
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  14. Esther Diana Rossi
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  15. Rocco Bellantone
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  16. Gabriele Materazzi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luca Sessa.

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Conflict of interest

All the authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Compliance with Ethical Standards, Research involving human participants and/or animals

Ethical approval was waived by the local Ethics Committees of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and Università degli Studi di Pisa in view of the retrospective nature of the study and all the procedures being performed were part of the routine care.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Raffaelli, M., Sessa, L., De Crea, C. et al. Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on thyroidectomy for malignant diseases in high-volume referral centers. Updates Surg 76, 1073–1083 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13304-024-01771-0

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