High Levels of Incidental COVID-19 Infection in Emergency Urology Admissions: A Propensity Score-Matched Real World Data Analysis across Surgical Specialties

Abstract

Background: An incidental COVID-19 infection is often found in patients admitted for non-COVID-19-related conditions. This study aims to investigate the incidence of COVID-19 infections across surgical specialties including urology, general surgery, and orthopaedic surgery. Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study based on a territory-wide electronic database in Hong Kong. All emergency in-hospital admissions under the urology, general surgery, and orthopaedic surgery divisions in the public healthcare system in Hong Kong from January to September 2022 were included. All patients were routinely screened for SARS-CoV-2, based on admission protocols during the investigation period. Baseline characteristics were retrieved, with 1:1:1 propensity score matching being performed. Incidental COVID-19 rates were then compared across specialties. Results: A total of 126,034 patients were included. After propensity score matching, the baseline characteristics were well balanced, and 8535 patients in each group were analysed. Urology admission was noted to have a statistically significant higher incidence of incidental COVID-19 at 9.3%, compared to general surgery (5.4%) or orthopaedic surgery (5.6%). Amongst urology patients with incidental COVID-19 infection, 35.8% were admitted for retention of urine, 27.9% for haematuria, and 8.6% for a urinary tract infection. Conclusions: This large-scale cohort study demonstrated that incidental COVID-19 rates differ between surgical specialties, with urology having the highest proportion of incidental COVID-19 infection.