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. 2021 Sep 30;9(10):1311.
doi: 10.3390/healthcare9101311.

Knee Pathology before and after SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: An Analysis of 1139 Patients

Riccardo Giorgino  1 , Davide Maria Maggioni  1 , Marco Viganò  2 , Fabio Verdoni  2 , Elisa Pandini  2 , Cristiana Balbino  2 , Nicola Manta  2 , Roberto D'Anchise  2 , Laura Mangiavini  2   3
Affiliations

Knee Pathology before and after SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: An Analysis of 1139 Patients

Riccardo Giorgino et al. Healthcare (Basel). .

Abstract

Background: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic drastically changed daily life activities and medical practice, leading to a reorganization of healthcare activities. People spent two months in home-isolation, changing their daily habits and undertaking a more sedentary lifestyle. Change in lifestyle is related to important consequences in knee pathologies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the outpatient activity for knee pathologies before and after lockdown in terms of incidence, severity, diagnosis, and treatment.

Methods: Medical records of patients with knee pathology in outpatient follow-up at IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Galeazzi in Milan (Italy) were analyzed in the time frame 4 May-4 September 2020 and compared with patients examined between 4 May and 4 September 2019.

Results: A significant increase of knee diagnoses associated to patellofemoral disorders in 2020 was found (p = 0.004). In addition, physiotherapy was significantly more prescribed in 2020 than in 2019 (p = 0.012).

Conclusions: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic lockdown did not drastically change knee pathology, but it may have had an impact on it, highlighting a summary worsening of patellofemoral disorders associated with other knee diagnoses. Further studies are required to validate this result.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2 pandemic; knee; lockdown; patellofemoral pain syndrome.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of the ten groups of diagnoses in 2019 knee medical records. (1) Post-surgery follow-up. (2) Degenerative disease. (3) Meniscus pathology. (4) Ligamentous pathology. (5) Patellofemoral disorders. (6) Osteocartilage pathology. (7) Growth pathology. (8) Traumatic injuries. (9) Other causes. (10) Unknown causes.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of the ten groups of diagnoses in 2020 knee medical records. (1) Post-surgery follow-up. (2) Degenerative disease. (3) Meniscus pathology. (4) Ligamentous pathology. (5) Patellofemoral disorders. (6) Osteocartilage pathology. (7) Growth pathology. (8) Traumatic injuries. (9) Other causes. (10) Unknown causes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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