The Impact of Surgical Delay: A Single Institutional Experience at the Epicenter of the COVID Pandemic Treatment Delays in Women with Endometrial Cancer and Endometrial Intraepithelial Hyperplasia

Abstract

The spread of COVID-19 led to a lockdown in New York in March of 2020. Nonemergent surgeries were postponed, including oncologic procedures. The backlog of surgeries was addressed starting May 2020. Our goal was to examine the change in waiting times for endometrial cancer surgeries during the COVID-19 pandemic in our institution. Data on surgery incidence and waiting time was gathered for patients diagnosed with endometrial intraepithelial neoplasia and endometrial cancer. The association between days from diagnosis to surgery was adjusted for age, obesity, presence of comorbid conditions, race, smoking history and diagnosis and was examined using a general linear model. A total of 190 patients were identified for this retrospective study. Five subjects were missing information on race and were excluded from all analyses, resulting in 185 subjects in the final analyses. Mean waiting time during COVID-19 was 70.9 days (95%CI 55.0, 91.3), compared to 49.3 (95%CI 49.8, 63.8) days during the reference period. No significant associations were seen between the time and any of the clinical or demographic factors.