During phrase 1 of the pandemic, Buzzi Hospital was the only COVID pediatric hospital in the Milan area. Due to its patient profile, it was also the only COVID hospital required to accept – especially in urgent cases – children both COVID-positive and -negative. This led to a sharp increase in the numbers of hospital admissions and to long waitlists.

We therefore strove to split the treatment pathways within Buzzi Hospital between non-COVID (elective surgery) and COVID (emergency surgery).

1. Non-COVID pathway: For children not requiring urgent intervention who could therefore un-dergo a short wait, a negative COVID test was obtained before elective surgical intervention. These patients were separated into a non-COVID, “clean” pathway.
2. COVID pathway: All children visiting the hospital’s Pediatric Emergency Department requi-ring emergency surgery had to be treated as COVID patients, owing to our uncertainty about their status, and therefore were sorted into the pathways reserved for COVID-positive pa-tients. The hospital experienced the need to strengthen the emergency COVID pathways, using diagnostic and treatment equipment, to respond to the urgent cases.

This led us to initiate a project to support the Buzzi Hospital’s Pediatric Surgery department, currently the only such department in the entire Milan area, by providing the necessary equipment to ensure the safety of the emergency COVID pathway.

In particular, we have provided for the purchase of a solid-state manometry system for Pediatric Gastrointestinal Surgery composed of:

✦ Esophageal manometry module
✦ Anorectal manometry module
✦ Solid-state esophageal manometry probe
✦ 3D anorectal manometry probe
✦ PC with dedicated software, printer, monitor, and trolley

For Pediatric Urological Surgery, the purchase of:

✦ Urodynamics system
✦ Urethrotome
✦ URF-P7 Olympus ureterorenoscope

For Pediatric Ocular Surgery, the purchase of:

✦ Chart Systems Topcon CC-100XPLED ICare rebound tonometer
✦ Topcon CL300 computerized lensmeter
✦ Finoff-Heine scleral transilluminator
✦ Heine indirect Schepens ophthalmoscope + Volk 28D lens

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