Impact of Pandemic Measures on Emergency Department Visits: A Comparative Analysis of Medico-Legal Cases Before and During COVID-19

Objective: Proper analysis of the pandemic is vital for correctly managing future crises, predicting the problems encountered, reducing their effects, and taking appropriate precautions.In this study, we aimed to compare cases of emergency department (ED) in a tertiary care adult ED during the pandemic and the pre-pandemic periods to evaluate the effect of lockdowns and similar restrictive measures.Methods: "Pandemic period" was defined as the period between 11.03.2020 and 11.03.2021, and "pre-pandemic period" was defined as the period between the same dates in the previous year.Thousand cases (500 from each period) were selected by sampling method among 7137 medicolegal cases presented to the Adult ED in these two years.The total number of ED admissions and medico-legal cases' quality, frequency, and diversity were compared.Results: Total admissions to the adult ED decreased by 42.8% during the pandemic period compared with the pre-pandemic period.Although medico-legal cases also decreased, their proportion in all admissions increased by more than 50%.Leaving the hospital voluntarily reduced significantly (p<0.001).There was a significant decrease in the daily average number of medico-legal cases during the full-day lockdowns of the pandemic compared with all other periods (p<0.001).Medico-legal cases decreased on weekends when the lockdown was imposed more frequently (p<0.046).In the pandemic, traffic accidents increased due to motorcycle accidents (p<0.010).Ama: Gelecekteki krizlerin doru ynetimi, karlalan sorunlarn ngrlmesi, etkilerinin azaltlmas ve uygun nlemlerin alnabilmesi iin pandemi dneminin doru analiz edilmesi byk nem tamaktadr.Bu almada, bir nc basamak yetikin acil servisine pandemi ve pandemi ncesi dnemlerde bavuran olgularn karlatrlmas amalanarak, sokaa kma yasaklar ve benzeri kstlayc nlemlerin etkilerinin deerlendirilmesi hedeflenmitir.Yntemler: "Pandemi dnemi" 11