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COVID-19 pandemic and challenges in pediatric gastroenterology practice
Journal article   Open access

COVID-19 pandemic and challenges in pediatric gastroenterology practice

Jamal Kriem and Riad Rahhal
World journal of gastroenterology : WJG, Vol.26(36), pp.5387-5394
09/28/2020
DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i36.5387
PMCID: PMC7520606
PMID: 33024391
url
https://doi.org/10.3748/wjg.v26.i36.5387View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

The current coronavirus pandemic is imposing unpreceded challenges to the practice of pediatric gastroenterology. These are highlighted in their impact on performing aerosol-generating endoscopy procedures and the need to accommodate longer room turnaround time for disinfection, ensuring appropriate and consistent safety measures for patients, staff and providers, and emphasizing the importance for screening patients for active coronavirus disease (COVID) infection before endoscopy when possible. Pediatric patients are less likely to exhibit severe COVID-related symptoms so survey-based screening would not be a sensitive measure to identify patients with active infections. To address the restrictions of patients coming for face to face clinic encounters, there has been rapid expansion of telehealth services in a very short time period with several difficulties encountered. To survive these challenges, pediatric gastroenterology practices need to adapt and accept flexibility in clinical operations with ongoing commitment to safety for patients and healthcare workers.
Gastroenterology & Hepatology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Science & Technology

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