P103 Provision of pleural disease care in the pandemic era: A single centre experience

Abstract

P103 Table 1Results Pre pandemic group Pandemic group p value Number of patients 82 83 Number of procedures 157 132 Number of procedural episodes 152 122 Sex – Female (%) 35 (42.7) 40 (48.2) 0.477 Age, mean ( SD), yrs 65.3 (14.4) 66.5 (14.9) 0.60 Interval between referral and date of procedure, median (IQR), days 4 ( 6) n= 75 3 (6) n= 75 0.134 Interval between sampling & histocytological diagnosis, median (IQR), days 5 (3) n= 66 4 (4) n= 76 0.003 Types of procedures (%) Diagnostic and/or therapeutic pleural aspirate Indwelling pleural catheter review & or drainage Indwelling pleural catheter insertion Percutaneous pleural biopsy Medical thoracoscopy Other procedure 60/157 (38.2) 62/157 (39.5) 20/157 (12.7) 7/157 (4.4) 3/157 (1.9) 5/157 (3.2) 63/132 (47.7) 15/132 (11.4) 28/132 (21.2) 7/132 (5.3) 4/132 (3) 15/132 (11.4) Diagnoses% Malignancy Benign disease Infection 46/82 (56.1) 36/82 (43.9) 0/82 (0) 45/83 (54.2) 35/83 (42.2) 3/83 (3.6) ConclusionDespite the pressures of the pandemic on health care system, pleural activity remained relatively stable. Number of procedural episodes were lower in the pandemic group due to combining the procedures where appropriate and streamlining IPC reviews and drainages by finding alternative ways of managing these patients in the community.