Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on an Interdisciplinary Endoscopy Unit in a German "Hotspot" Area: a Single Center Experience

This article is intended to provide an overview of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on an interdisciplinary endoscopy unit (IEU, gastroenterological endoscopy, surgical endoscopy, and bronchoscopy) at the University Hospital Tübingen, a center for tertiary care in South-western Germany. First, preparations for COVID-19 pandemic with respect to the IEU are presented, and compared with those of other endoscopy units (7, 8). Additionally, the direct impact of SARS-CoV-2 on the staff of the IEU will be shown, together with a point-prevalence analysis of SARS-CoV-2 of the staff at the end of the SARS-CoV-2 wave in Tübingen. Finally, to our knowledge for the first time, we conducted a prospective single center analysis of the patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, which required a diagnostic or therapeutic endoscopic intervention.