Abstract
Purpose :
The global Covid-19 pandemic created mass disruptions in health services, with reduced patient visits to hospitals that may have led to diminished cancer screening and detection rates. Our paper aims to evaluate the impact of our Oculoplastics department’s triage measures to counteract the social-distancing impact of Covid-19 national lockdown on the screening and detection of periocular malignancies during the pandemic.
Methods :
A retrospective single-centre data review was conducted on all the histopathological specimens obtained by the Oculoplastics department of the Singapore National Eye Centre, the largest tertiary referral eye centre in Singapore, from 1st January 2018 to 31st December 2021. The national lockdown date of 7th April 2020 was used as the reference point for data comparison i.e pre- vs post-lockdown. We compared the proportion of malignant samples pre- and post-lockdown, and also examined the association of malignancy with the lockdown status in logistic regression models.
Results :
The total number of histopathological specimens received from the department was decreased post-lockdown (n=477[VF1] ) compared to pre-lockdown (n=703). There was however a significantly greater proportion of malignant specimens received post- compared to pre-lockdown (67/477 [14.04%] vs 53/703 [7.54%], p<0.001). In the multivariate regression model adjusted for age, gender, ethnicity and referral source, age [OR 1.04, 95% CI xxx[VF2] , p<0.001] and post-lockdown status [OR 1.92, 95% CI xxx, [VF3] p,0.001] were both significantly associated with malignancy. The tumour types [VF4] or tumour maximal diameter was not correlated with the pre- or post-lockdown status (R=0.172, p=0.27).
Conclusions :
This study demonstrates that appropriate triage measures to screen for Oculoplastics-related malignancies can enhance their detection rates despite a national lockdown, and are recommended for counteracting the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Ophthalmology institutions should adjust to the impact of social policies during a pandemic to mitigate any disruptions to screening and diagnoses of malignancies. Long-term data is required to evaluate this impact on patient outcomes of these periocular malignancies.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.