The impact of covid-19 pandemic on urgent endoscopy in Italy: a nation-wide multicenter study

Objective:COVID-19 pandemic has seriously affected Italy. Radical changes occurred in the ItalianNHS and thus in GI departments, as only urgent endoscopies were guaranteed. The study aimed toreport how the demand for urgent endoscopy changed during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy and toevaluate the appropriateness of urgent referrals in the Endoscopy Unit.Material and methods:Nation-wide, cross-sectional survey study in 54 Italian GI Units. Data were col-lected regarding urgent endoscopies (EGD, CS, ERCP) in two different time periods: March 2019 andMarch 2020.Results:Thirty-five (64.8%) GI endoscopy Units responded to the survey. The entity of reduction ofoverall urgent EGDs and CSs performed in March 2020 versus March 2019 was statistically significant:541 versus 974 (80%),p<.001 for EGD and 171 versus 265 (55%),p<.008, for CS, respectively. No