Background : To assess how the COVID-19 pandemic affects severity of cholecystitis in viewpoint of delayed diagnosis and narrowed access to elective surgery.

Methods : A total of 547 patients who underwent cholecystectomy from October 2019 to May 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were divided into two groups according to the time they underwent cholecystectomy: group 1, pre-COVID(October 2019~January 2020); group 2, post-COVID(February 2020~May 2020). Clinical findings and surgical outcomes were analyzed to compare the severity of cholecystitis according to COVID-19 pandemic status.

Results : The patients who inserted PTGBD before cholecystectomy or closed suction drain after cholecystectomy were not different between the group 1 and group 2 (10.6% vs. 9.0%, p=0.529; 3.0% vs. 1.2%, p=0.163). There were no difference in terms of the percentage of patient who prescribed broad spectrum antibiotics and open conversion rates between the two groups (14.9% vs. 13.9%, p=0.735; 1.3% vs. 0.4%, p=0.263). The mean operation time and hospital stay were also similar (57.5?8.6 vs. 57.8?5.7, p=0.856; 2.9?.8 vs. 2.7?.4, p=0.097)

Conclusions : This study showed that COVID-19 pandemic did not influence the severity of the patient who underwent cholecystectomy. These findings might be interpreted as not having a significant impact on access to hospital for the patients with cholecystitis during the COVID-19 crisis.