Methods
The study was approved by the local ethics committee. An announcement of the study was sent to all Urology clinics across Turkey via e-mail and social media. All of the centers that agreed to participate in the study were included in the study. The number of outpatient and hospitalized patients, emergency service consultations, urological surgeries including transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TUR-BT), transurethral resection of prostate (TURP), endoscopic urethrotomy, ureterorenoscopy (URS), percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PNL), ureteral J stent insertion, radical nephrectomy, radical nephroureterectomy, radical prostatectomy (RP), radical cystectomy (RC), radical orchiectomy, surgery for Fournier’s gangrene, acute scrotum, trauma (kidney, bladder and testicle) and penile fracture; daily interventions (prostate biopsy, shock wave lithotripsy, percutaneous nephrostomy and cystostomy, intravesical treatments), and the number of pandemic outpatient clinics were recorded week-by-week between the week that the first Covid-19 patient was reported in our country, 9-15 March 2020, and the week 25-31 May 2020 prospectively; as lock-down measures were gone and the ‘new normal-life’ began in our country by 1stJune 2020. All of these variables were also recorded week-by-week at the same time interval of the year 2019. Other surgical and diagnostic approaches were not analyzed as guidelines regarding Covid-19 pandemic suggested the postponement of nearly all surgeries for female urology, andrology and some other elective surgical operations.8,11-13 The centers were divided into three groups as tertiary referral centers, state hospitals and private practice hospitals. The weekly change of the workload of urology throughout the pandemic period was evaluated; also the workload of urology and the distributions of certain urological surgeries were compared between the pandemic period and the same time interval of the year 2019.