Abstract
Aim: The COVID-19 pandemic affected all parts of the healthcare system. The aim of this study was to assess the pandemics effect on sleep medicine in the Czech Republic (CZE) and Slovakia (SVK).
Methods: A questionnaire based study, in which where 23 sleep departments (SD) (16 CZE; 7 SVK) were included between May 5, 2020 and May 17, 2020. Results: The service was completely interrupted in 43.5% SD.
The sum of estimated missed sleep studies in responding SD was 1,100 and the sum of missed positive airway pressure titrations was 580. When considering the response rate of the questionnaire through extrapolation, it is estimated that about 1,900 sleep studies and 1,000 positive airway pressure titrations were not performed in the region of the CZE and SVK because of COVID-19.
The situation is unlikely to improve soon, as 59.1% of SD do not expect to meet the same number of diagnosed/treated patients as in 2019 (53.3% CZE; 71.4% SVK) and about 34.8% of SD will not restart their activity by the end of May 2020 or will run with a very limited capacity (23.5% CZE; 57.1% SVK). Conclusion: Sleep medicine in the CZE and SVK was heavily affected by COVID-19 and the loss of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures may be considered as one of pandemic "collateral damages".