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Observational Study
. 2021 Mar 22;29(1):51.
doi: 10.1186/s13049-021-00864-8.

Impact of the SARS-COV-2 outbreak on epidemiology and management of major traumain France: a registry-based study (the COVITRAUMA study)

Jean-Denis Moyer  1 , Arthur James  2 , Clément Gakuba  3 , Mathieu Boutonnet  4 , Emeline Angles  5 , Emmanuel Rozenberg  6 , Jean Bardon  7 , Thomas Clavier  8 , Vincent Legros  9 , Marie Werner  10 , Quentin Mathais  11 , Véronique Ramonda  12 , Pierre Le Minh  13 , Yann Berthelot  14 , Clélia Colas  14 , Julien Pottecher  15 , Tobias Gauss  13 ; and the Traumabase Group
Affiliations
Observational Study

Impact of the SARS-COV-2 outbreak on epidemiology and management of major traumain France: a registry-based study (the COVITRAUMA study)

Jean-Denis Moyer et al. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med. .

Abstract

Background: Emerging evidence suggests that the reallocation of health care resources during the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacts health care system. This study describes the epidemiology and the outcome of major trauma patients admitted to centers in France during the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Methods: This retrospective observational study included all consecutive trauma patients aged 15 years and older admitted into 15 centers contributing to the TraumaBase® registry during the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in France. This COVID-19 trauma cohort was compared to historical cohorts (2017-2019).

Results: Over a 4 years-study period, 5762 patients were admitted between the first week of February and mid-June. This cohort was split between patients admitted during the first 2020 pandemic wave in France (pandemic period, 1314 patients) and those admitted during the corresponding period in the three previous years (2017-2019, 4448 patients). Trauma patient demographics changed substantially during the pandemic especially during the lockdown period, with an observed reduction in both the absolute numbers and proportion exposed to road traffic accidents and subsequently admitted to traumacenters (348 annually 2017-2019 [55.4% of trauma admissions] vs 143 [36.8%] in 2020 p < 0.005). The in-hospital observed mortality and predicted mortality during the pandemic period were not different compared to the non-pandemic years.

Conclusions: During this first wave of COVID-19 in France, and more specifically during lockdown there was a significant reduction of patients admitted to designated trauma centers. Despite the reallocation and reorganization of medical resources this reduction prevented the saturation of the trauma rescue chain and has allowed maintaining a high quality of care for trauma patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; France; Trauma; Traumacenter.

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Conflict of interest statement

TG reports personal fees from Laboratoire du Biomédicament Français, outside the submitted work

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Weekly number of patients admitted in Traumacenter in 2020 and compared with previous years (average of 2017–2019)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Weekly distribution of injury mechanism admitted at Traumacenter during the previous years (average of 2017 to 2019)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Weekly distribution of injury mechanism admitted at Traumacenter in 2020
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Observed mortality and expected mortality during pre-lockdown, lockdown and post-lockdown in 2020 and compared to the previous years (average of 2017–2019)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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