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©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Hospital admissions from alcohol-related acute pancreatitis during the COVID-19 pandemic: A single-centre study
Wai Kin Mak, Davide Di Mauro, Eleanor Pearce, Laura Karran, Aye Myintmo, Jessica Duckworth, Amira Orabi, Rebekah Lane, Sophie Holloway, Antonio Manzelli, Somayyeh Mossadegh
Wai Kin Mak, Davide Di Mauro, Aye Myintmo, Jessica Duckworth, Amira Orabi, Rebekah Lane, Sophie Holloway, Antonio Manzelli, Upper GI Surgery, Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, Exeter EX2 5DW, United Kingdom
Eleanor Pearce, General Surgery, Torbay Hospital, Torquay TQ2 7AA, United Kingdom
Laura Karran, General Surgery, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London SW10 9NH, United Kingdom
Somayyeh Mossadegh, General Surgery, Royal Cornwall Hospital Treliske, Truro TR1 3LJ, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Mak WK, Di Mauro D and Mossadegh S contributed to the methodology; Di Mauro D, Manzelli A and Mossadegh S contributed to conceptualization; Mak WK, Pearce E, Karran L, Myintmo A, Duckworth J, Orabi A, Lane R and Holloway S contributed to formal analysis and investigation; Mak WK contributed to writing – original draft preparation; Mak WK, Di Mauro D and Mossadegh S contribute to writing – review and editing; Manzelli A and Mossadegh S contributed to supervision; all authors contributed to the study conception and design, commented on previous versions of the manuscript and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study has been registered and approved by the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust Governance Board-reference number 20-4628.
Informed consent statement: All patient data was fully anonymized at the time of collection and therefore individual informed consent was not required.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to report.
Data sharing statement: The dataset analysed during the current study is not publicly available, in accordance with the Confidentiality Policy in force at the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust; this is a legal requirement under the Data Protection Act 2018 (United Kingdom). Data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See:
https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Corresponding author: Wai Kin Mak, MBBS, Doctor, Upper GI Surgery, Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, Barrack Road, Exeter EX2 5DW, United Kingdom. w.mak@nhs.net
Received: December 8, 2021
Peer-review started: December 8, 2021
First decision: January 8, 2022
Revised: January 24, 2022
Accepted: June 30, 2022
Article in press: June 30, 2022
Published online: September 6, 2022
Processing time: 260 Days and 17.3 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
In order to combat the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, one strategy was the introduction of social isolation also known as lockdown restrictions. In the United Kingdom, the first set of restrictions was put in place in March and partially lifted in June 2020.
Research motivation
There are currently no data on the impact of alcohol abuse on the trend of hospital admissions for alcohol-related acute pancreatitis (AP) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Research objectives
To evaluate the trend in alcohol-related AP admissions during the first COVID-19 lockdown period.
Research methods
Review of case notes and discharge summaries of March–September 2016–2020.
Research results
During the lockdown period of March–June 2020, admissions were 38.5% higher than in 2019. A 38.89% reduction was observed following the easing of restrictions.
Research conclusions
An increased number of admissions for alcohol-related AP was observed during lockdown, with cases falling following the easing of restrictions. Follow-up studies are required to better understand the effects of COVID-19 on alcohol-related AP.
Research perspectives
Follow-up studies looking at the epidemiology of postpandemic drinking habits and alcohol-related AP admission rates would allow better understanding of the effects of COVID-19 on alcohol-related AP. This could also potentially inform how community support could be improved for this group of patients.
