Changing Pattern of Orthopaedic Trauma Admissions During COVID-19 Pandemic: Experience at a Tertiary Trauma Centre in In
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Changing Pattern of Orthopaedic Trauma Admissions During COVID‑19 Pandemic: Experience at a Tertiary Trauma Centre in India M. S. Dhillon1 · Deepak Kumar1 · Uttam Chand Saini1 · Himanshu Bhayana1 · Nirmal Raj Gopinathan1 · Sameer Aggarwal1 Received: 3 July 2020 / Accepted: 17 August 2020 © Indian Orthopaedics Association 2020
Abstract Introduction COVID-19 has emerged as a medical threat to mankind, with a serious disruption of lifestyle in 2020. This has not only changed the way we live and work but has also changed the pattern of hospital admissions and medical care. To see if there was significant change in the pattern and management of trauma in our region, we evaluated data from our centre for the lockdown period and compared it with data from the previous year, and also with some available international data. Methods We collated data from our Tertiary care hospital for two periods, i.e. from 25th March 2020 to 3rd May 2020 signifying strict lockdown and then from 4th May to 31st May during which some conditional relaxations were given. This was compared to data from similar periods in 2019. We looked at patient demographics, fracture types, injury mechanisms, and even changes in treatment protocols. Results Significant reductions in caseloads were noted; open injuries were less, road accidents were infrequent, but cases due to falls, especially children and the elderly were still seen, although slightly reduced. The plan to minimize operative interventions could not be fully implemented due to complex nature of trauma seen by us. Only one case of bilateral amputation turned out to be positive, with no infectious consequences to the treating staff. Conclusions COVID-19 pandemic led to significant reductions in trauma caseload and change in injury patterns. Doctor responses and patient management needs significant alteration to prevent spread of disease. Keywords COVID-19 · Orthopaedic emergency · Coronavirus · Trauma demographics
Introduction The viral pandemic which was first reported in December 2019 as a cluster outbreak in Wuhan, China [1] has spread across various countries and continents. India officially entered global havoc on 30th January with its first registered
* Deepak Kumar [email protected] M. S. Dhillon [email protected] Uttam Chand Saini [email protected] Nirmal Raj Gopinathan [email protected] Sameer Aggarwal [email protected] 1
Department of Orthopedics, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India
COVID case. WHO called it a global health emergency and called for a combined international effort to suppress the outbreak [2]. Various countries have adopted aggressive mitigation and containment measures such as complete lockdown. The government of India also enforced a strict nationwide lockdown from 24th March, which was initially scheduled for 21 days (till 14th April 2020), which was later extended till 3rd May. Following this, the lockdown was extended for 28 days (4th May to 31st May) with some conditional relaxations. During this phase of
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