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Inpatient dermatology consultations during COVID 19 pandemic in a tertiary referral center
Author(s) -
Uzuncakmak Tugba Kevser,
Bayazit Samet,
Askin Ozge,
Engin Burhan,
Kutlubay Zekayi
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
dermatologic therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.595
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1529-8019
pISSN - 1396-0296
DOI - 10.1111/dth.13883
Subject(s) - medicine , dermatology , retrospective cohort study , referral , pandemic , covid-19 , tertiary referral hospital , emergency medicine , teledermatology , pediatrics , family medicine , telemedicine , health care , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty) , economics , economic growth
Since the COVID‐19 infection first appeared in December 2019, patient profile of outpatient and inpatient clinics has changed. Various cutaneous findings associated with COVID‐19 have been reported in the literature. The main objective of this study was to describe and analyze the profile of the consultations requested from dermatology department during the COVID pandemic. Retrospective, cohort study. In this study, we observed the dermatology consultations of the hospitalized patients over a period of 2 months, corresponding to the peak of COVID outbreak in a tertiary care hospital in Turkey. We reviewed the inpatient dermatology consult database retrospectively. Both pediatric and adult dermatology inpatient consultations were evaluated. A total of 166 inpatient dermatology consultations were requested from dermatology department during March‐May, 2020. The mean age of the patients was 53.12 (1‐89) years. Almost 32.5% (n = 54) of dermatology consultations were requested from the COVID wards and the COVID intensive care unit. The second most common consultations were requested from internal medicine departments (n = 46, 27.7%). The most common indications for the consultations were cutaneous infections (36%), followed by inflammatory disorders (32%), and urticaria (11%). Dermatology consultations have an essential role on the management of hospitalized patients, especially at that pandemic time. Careful dermatological examination improves diagnostic accuracy in skin disorders and skin manifestations of COVID‐19 infection that provides an early diagnosis and treatment, helps to improve the quality of the patient care and management.