Impact of coronavirus disease 2019 lockdown on catheterization laboratory: An Indian perspective

Aims: This study aims to study the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown on catheterization laboratory (Cath Lab) utilization for cardiac patients. Subjects and Methods: In this retrospective observational study, a total number of procedures in Cath Lab during COVID-19 lockdown were compared with pre-COVID-19 lockdown time to see the impact of the pandemic on cardiac patients undergoing interventions. Results: A total of 1982 procedures (1788 in prelockdown vs. 194 in lockdown; P < 0.001) were performed in the catheterization laboratory during the 6 months' time frame of this study. There was an alarming drop in procedures by 89.1% in the lockdown period with the maximum reduction seen in diagnostic coronary angiography (96.6%), elective angioplasty decreased by 96.4%, and primary angioplasty by 82.08%. There was an increase in rescue angioplasty by 80% (P < 0.001) during the lockdown phase. There was a fall of 83.9% in admissions of acute coronary syndrome and 62.76% reduction in heart failure admissions during the lockdown period. During the study period, there were a total of 2111 admissions in the cardiac care unit (1882 in pre vs. 229 in lockdown; P < 0.001), which showed an 87.14% reduction when compared to the prelockdown group. Conclusions: We report an alarming reduction in total admissions and catheterization laboratory procedures as an impact of COVID-19-related lockdown. This represents a serious problem regarding the handling of this pandemic by the health-care system and can be used to devise proper strategies for the recovery phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.