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VOLUME 4 , ISSUE 2 ( July-December, 2020 ) > List of Articles

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Rising Trends in Ectopic Pregnancy during COVID-19 Pandemic

Surinder Kaur, Preet Kamal, Ripan Bala

Citation Information : Kaur S, Kamal P, Bala R. Rising Trends in Ectopic Pregnancy during COVID-19 Pandemic. Curr Trends Diagn Treat 2020; 4 (2):84-86.

DOI: 10.5005/jp-journals-10055-0106

License: CC BY-NC 4.0

Published Online: 01-12-2020

Copyright Statement:  Copyright © 2020; The Author(s).


Abstract

Introduction: Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has spread at an exponential rate in several countries. Whereas understanding of clinical consequences, prevention, and management of COVID-19 is increasing, little is known about the collateral damage caused by it. It is noteworthy that ectopic pregnancies contributed to significant obstetric emergencies in the COVID-19 pandemic and sensitized the caregivers to report the event. Materials and methods: This retrospective study was conducted at the Tertiary Care Medical and Teaching Institute, Amritsar, India, to observe the rising trends of ectopic pregnancy during the lockdown period from March 22, 2020, to July 30, 2020. Data were taken from the hospital records of Emergency and Gynaecology and Obstetric departments after getting ethical clearance from the ethics committee of the institute. The details of demographic characters, clinical presentation, risk factors, and treatment plan for ectopic pregnancy, as well as associated morbidity and mortality were studied in detail in comparison to times other than during COVID-19 pandemic. Results: It was observed that the proportion of ruptured ectopic pregnancies was significantly higher during the lockdown period in comparison to the prelockdown period (12/617; 1.94% vs. 17/4367; 0.381%, Fisher's exact test p 0.02). Majority of patients (91.66%) presented late with ruptured ectopic pregnancy with hemoperitoneum and had to undergo emergency laparotomy and a salpingectomy was done in 66.66% of cases. Discussion: Social lifestyle changes, increased use of emergency contraceptive pills, and medical abortion pills due to poor accessibility of healthcare facilities were observed during this period. Noticeably, a high number of patients came in an emergency with failed medical abortions who were later diagnosed with ruptured ectopic pregnancies. Conclusion: We think that monitoring the indirect potential consequences of COVID-19 pandemic is imperative in order to avoid unexpected deleterious complications in women's health.


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