Özet:

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused serious changes in our routine healthcare practices. With this study, we aimed to determine the effect of the pandemic on the diagnosis of breast cancer. Methods:The medical records of patients who applied for breast imaging between March 2019 and January 2021 were retrospectively scanned. Among the patients diagnosed with BI-RADS category 4 and 5, those who had percutaneous ultrasound-guided core needle breast biopsy (CNBB) and excisional biopsy after ultrasound guided wire marking (UGWM) were included in the study. The study period was divided into two groups; March 2019-January 2020 was grouped as pre-pandemic and March 2020-January 2021 post-pandemic. Results:A total of, 14200 breast imaging examinations were performed in 9378 patients in the pre-pandemic period, and 3778 breast imaging examinations were performed in 2375 patients in the post-pandemic period. The mean age of the patients was 48.98±14.11 years. While the number of lesions biopsied was 201 (1.4%) in the pre-pandemic period, it was 61 (1.6%) in the post-pandemic period. The number of malignant breast lesions was 97 before the pandemic and 30 after the pandemic. After the pandemic, the number of patients undergoing breast imaging, the number of examinations, the number of biopsy, the number of malignant lesions decreased by 74%, 73%, 69% and 69%, respectively. The highest decrease in the number of examination was in April and May, with 97.55% and 96.35%. Conclusions:With the pandemic, the number of patients admitted to the hospital, the number of breast imaging, the number of biopsy and the number of malignant breast lesions detected decreased about 70%. It has been noticed that during the pandemic process, patients have been delaying their regular check-ups and the time to apply to the hospital has been prolonged.

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