Benign prostatic obstruction (BPO) is one of the most common causes of male lower urinary tract symptoms. Some institutions routinely perform BPO surgeries in ambulatory setting, while others elect for overnight hospitalization. With the COVID-19 pandemic limiting resources and hospital space for elective surgery, we investigated the time trend of ambulatory BPO procedures performed around the COVID-19 outbreak.
We identified BPO surgeries from the California State Inpatient and State Ambulatory Surgery Databases between 2018 and 2020. Our primary outcome was the proportion of procedures performed in ambulatory settings with a length of stay of zero days. Univariable and multivariable analyses were performed to analyze factors associated with ambulatory surgery around the COVID-19 outbreak. Spline regression with a knot at the pandemic outbreak was performed to compare time trends pre- and post-pandemic.
Among 37,148 patients who underwent BPO procedures, 30,067 (80.9%) were ambulatory. Before COVID-19, 80.1% BPO procedures were performed ambulatory, which increased to 83.4% after COVID-19 outbreak (p < 0.001). In multivariable model, BPO procedures performed after COVID-19 outbreak were 1.26 times more likely to be ambulatory (OR 1.26, 95% CI 1.14-1.40, p < 0.0001). Spline curve analysis indicated significantly different trend of change pre- and post-pandemic (p = 0.006).
We observed a rising trend of BPO surgeries performed in ambulatory setting post-pandemic. It remains to be seen if the observed ambulatory transition remains as we continue to recover from the pandemic.
World journal of urology. 2024 Nov 01*** epublish ***
Zhiyu Qian, Dejan Filipas, Edoardo Beatrici, Jamie Ye, Mansoo Cho, Filippo Dagnino, Hanna Zurl, Daniel Stelzl, David F Friedlander, Quoc-Dien Trinh, Stuart R Lipsitz, Alexander P Cole, Lori B Lerner
Department of Urology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA., Department of Urology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany., Department of Urology, Humanitas Clinical and Research Hospital, Milan, Italy., Center for Surgery and Public Health, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA., Department of Urology, University of North Carolina Medical Center, Chapel Hill, NC, USA., Department of Surgery, VA Boston Healthcare System, West Roxbury, MA, USA. .