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. 2021 Jun 29;13(6):e16013.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.16013. eCollection 2021 Jun.

One Year Later: What Was the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Orthopedic Practice?

Elias Vasiliadis  1 , Christos Vlachos  1 , Eftychios Papagrigorakis  2 , Dimitrios Stergios Evangelopoulos  2 , Moyssis Lelekis  3 , Spyros G Pneumaticos  1
Affiliations

One Year Later: What Was the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Orthopedic Practice?

Elias Vasiliadis et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is an enormous challenge for health care systems worldwide. Although it is widely accepted that orthopedic service has been reduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, little is known about the magnitude and qualitative characteristics of this reduction. The aim of the present study is to quantify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on everyday orthopedic practice and to detect the qualitative details of this impact in order to provide data for appropriate planning of health care policy. Data from the year 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, regarding the number of patients examined in the emergency department, outpatient clinics, as well as the number of hospital admissions, were recorded for each month. The number of surgical procedures per month was also recorded and evaluated in relation to the category and the anatomical region that these procedures pertained to. Similar data from the year 2019 were used as a control group. The mean number of patients who visited the emergency department, the outpatient clinics, and those who were admitted to the hospital per month decreased by 47.2%, 30.4%, and 9%, respectively. Overall, the mean number of orthopedic operations decreased by 11.7%, with trauma operations being reduced by 8.9% and elective operations by 13% per month. Based on the findings of the present study, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on orthopedic patients is definitely negative. The establishment of new guidelines and re-distribution of resources is required to return to a normal function of orthopedic practice within hospitals.

Keywords: covid-19; elective; orthopedic; pandemic; surgeries; trauma.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Monthly distribution of the number of patients who visited the emergency department
Figure 2
Figure 2. Monthly distribution of the number of patients examined at the outpatient clinics
Figure 3
Figure 3. Monthly distribution of the number of patients admitted to the hospital
Figure 4
Figure 4. Monthly distribution of the total number of orthopedic operations
Figure 5
Figure 5. Monthly distribution of the number of trauma and elective operations
Figure 6
Figure 6. Monthly distribution of the number of trauma operations by category
Figure 7
Figure 7. Monthly distribution of the number of elective operations by category
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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