Body interventional radiology procedure patterns across selected audit periods, 2018–2023, at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, South Africa: a descriptive service audit

Site-specific data on body interventional radiology activity in South African public hospitals are needed to inform service planning. This study aimed to characterise the procedural profile of a body interventional radiology service at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital (CHBAH), a large public hospital in Gauteng, South Africa, and to describe procedure mix across selected, non-contiguous pre-pandemic, pandemic-wave and later audit windows. This retrospective, single-centre descriptive audit included 1,443 procedure records from one contiguous six-month pre-pandemic sample (October 2018–April 2019), three discrete two-month windows selected within pandemic Waves I, II and III (2020–2021), and one contiguous six-month later audit-period sample (October 2022–April 2023). Intervening periods were not sampled. Workload was summarised using counts, proportions and percentage changes. Seven analytical procedure categories were compared across the three broad samples and the three wave samples using exploratory, procedure-record-level Pearson chi-square tests, with Cramér’s V as the effect-size measure. Because persistent patient identifiers were unavailable, p values do not account for possible within-patient clustering. Pigtail catheter drainage and aspiration was the largest procedure group (566/1,443; 39.2%), followed by biliary drainage interventions (282/1,443; 19.5%) and percutaneous nephrostomy (128/1,443; 8.9%). The pre-pandemic, pooled pandemic-wave and later audit-period samples contained 601, 387 and 455 records, respectively; the three wave windows contained 105, 115 and 167 records. In exploratory comparisons, procedure mix varied across the broad samples (χ 2 = 41.13, df = 12, p < 0.001; Cramér’s V = 0.119) and the wave windows (χ 2 = 32.08, df = 12, p = 0.0013; Cramér’s V = 0.204); these p values are unadjusted for possible within-patient clustering. Drainage and decompression procedures formed the core of recorded activity, and procedure mix varied across the sampled intervals. Because the audit comprised discrete windows rather than continuous observation, these findings describe the sampled periods and do not establish a causal effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. The audit provides a service-level benchmark for planning imaging capacity, specialist staffing, consumables and training, and for prospective monitoring of demand, access and outcomes. Level 4, retrospective descriptive study.