Study design
A retrospective review of all patients affected by urgent or
non-deferrable sinonasal or skull base diseases who were treated at the
Division of Otorhinolaryngology of the University Hospital of Varese
(Italy) between February 24th, 2020 and April
21st, 2020 (PANDEMIC-Group), was carried out. All
other non-sinus and skull base urgent cases treated at our hospital have
been excluded from the present analysis. Epidemiological and clinical
data, surgical reports, complications, and follow-up information were
reviewed, as well as COVID-19 detection tests (e.g. nasopharyngeal swab
results). A retrospective analysis of all patients affected by sinonasal
or skull base diseases, surgically treated at our institution in the
same two-month period of 2019 (CONTROL-Group) was carried out.
Epidemiological, clinical, surgical and follow-up data of such patients
were retrieved as well. The PANDEMIC-Group was compared with the
CONTROL-Group in order to evaluate the changes of our surgical activity
in terms of volume cases, diseases treated, patient’s geographical
origin and hospitalization time.