Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jun;47(6):1397-1405.
doi: 10.1007/s00264-023-05718-9. Epub 2023 Mar 10.

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the mortality and morbidity of patients undergoing trauma surgery: a report from the UK Corona TRAUMA Surge (UKCoTS) study

Mohamed Imam  1   2   3 , Antony Chi Fung Yiu  4 , Ahmed Elgebaly  5 , Anshul Sobti  6 , Richard E Field  7 , Zahra Jaffry  4 , Hazem Ghaith  8 , Paolo Consigliere  9 , Ali A Narvani  4 , Rawad Hassan  5 , Hassan Abdalla  5 ; UKCoTS Collaborative
Collaborators, Affiliations

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the mortality and morbidity of patients undergoing trauma surgery: a report from the UK Corona TRAUMA Surge (UKCoTS) study

Mohamed Imam et al. Int Orthop. 2023 Jun.

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the outcomes of the patients who underwent trauma surgery during the peak of the pandemic.

Methods: The UKCoTS collected the postoperative outcomes of consecutive patients who underwent trauma surgery across 50 centres during the peak of the pandemic (April 2020) and during April 2019.

Results: Patients who were operated on during 2020 were less likely to be followed up within a 30-day postoperative period (57.5% versus 75.6% p <0.001). The 30-day mortality rate was significantly higher during 2020 (7.4% versus 3.7%, p <0.001). Likewise, the 60-day mortality rate was significantly higher in 2020 than in 2019 (p <0.001). Patients who were operated on during 2020 had lower rates of 30-day postoperative complications (20.7% versus 26.4%, p <0.001).

Conclusions: Postoperative mortality was higher during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the same period in 2019, but with lower rates of postoperative complications and reoperation.

Keywords: COVID-19; Surgical outcomes; Surgical services; UK.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

References

    1. Cheema S, Ameduri M, Abraham A et al (2020) The COVID-19 pandemic: the public health reality. Epidemiol Infect 148. 10.1017/S0950268820002216 - PMC - PubMed
    1. COVID-19 Map - Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html. Accessed 4 Jan 2022
    1. Locatelli I, Trächsel B, Rousson V (2021) Estimating the basic reproduction number for COVID-19 in Western Europe. PLoS One 16. 10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0248731 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kokudo N, Sugiyama H. Hospital capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Glob Health Med. 2021;3:56–59. doi: 10.35772/GHM.2021.01031. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wu H, Soe MM, Konnor R et al (2021) Hospital capacities and shortages of healthcare resources among US hospitals during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), March 27–July 14, 2020. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 1. 10.1017/ICE.2021.280 - PMC - PubMed