65 - The Impact of COVID-19 on Bronchiolitis Visits in a Pediatric Emergency Department

Friday, April 28, 2023

5:15 PM – 7:15 PM ET

Poster Number: 65
Publication Number: 65.112

Allison Reid H. Burks, University of Alabama School of Medicine, Birmingham, AL, United States; Mary Orr, University of Alabama School of Medicine, Birmingham, AL, United States; william king, University of Alabama School of Medicine, Orange Beach, AL, United States; Pallavi Ghosh, Childrens hospital of Atlanta, MARIETTA, GA, United States

Presenting Author(s)

Allison Reid H. Burks, MD (she/her/hers)

Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellow
University of Alabama School of Medicine
Birmingham, Alabama, United States

Background:

Bronchiolitis is a viral respiratory illness that affects children from infancy to 24 months of age and is the most common cause of hospitalization for infants less than 12 months of age and peaks in the winter months in the western hemisphere. It is most often caused by respiratory syncytial virus. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19) developed in China in late 2019 and quickly spread globally, resulting in a worldwide pandemic. This study aimed to identify how bronchiolitis changed during the pandemic in a tertiary emergency department.

Objective:

This study aims to characterize how bronchiolitis visits in a large tertiary care pediatric emergency department (ED) in the southeast United States changed during two years of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the three years prior to the emergence of COVID-19. Secondary aims included measuring markers of visit acuity, virology of bronchiolitis, and general demographics of the study population.

Design/Methods:

This was a retrospective chart review from 2017-2022 analyzing ED visits, disposition, disease severity, and resource utilization of the patients seen in the emergency department.

Results:

In 2020 there was an 80% reduction in ED visits for bronchiolitis, a significant increase in admissions to the ICU (22%), and increased use of high flow (23%) and chest xrays (37%). RSV was almost non-existent in 2020 with only 4 cases identified on viral testing, instead rhino/enterovirus was the dominate circulating virus in the study population. In 2021 there was an atypical seasonal spike in bronchiolitis and RSV in the summer and the highest number of ED visits for bronchiolitis across the 5 study years.

Conclusion(s):

During the early pandemic measures put in place to hasten the spread of COVID-19 also altered the transmission of bronchiolitis. As these measures lifted in 2021 there was a large resurgence of RSV and bronchiolitis that had been dormant the year prior.