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. 2023 Mar 17:14:21514593231152420.
doi: 10.1177/21514593231152420. eCollection 2023.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Treatment and Outcome of Fragility Hip Fractures In Non-COVID Patients: Comparison Between the Lockdown Period, a Historical Series and the "Pandemic Normality" in a Single Institution

Elisa Troiano  1   2 , Alice Giulia De Sensi  1   2 , Francesco Zanasi  1 , Andrea Facchini  3 , Giulia De Marco  1 , Giovanni Battista Colasanti  1   2 , Nicola Mondanelli  1   2 , Stefano Giannotti  1   2
Affiliations

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Treatment and Outcome of Fragility Hip Fractures In Non-COVID Patients: Comparison Between the Lockdown Period, a Historical Series and the "Pandemic Normality" in a Single Institution

Elisa Troiano et al. Geriatr Orthop Surg Rehabil. .

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected and is still deeply affecting all aspects of public life. World governments have been forced to enact restrictive measures to stem the contagion which have led to a decrease in the movement of people within national territory and to a redirection of health care resources with a suspension of non-urgent procedures. In Italy, a lockdown was imposed from March 9th to May 3rd, 2020. As a result, a significant reduction in the overall operative volume of orthopedic trauma was expected, but it was not possible to predict a similar trend regarding fragility fractures of the proximal femur in the elderly.

Methods: The aim of this paper was to examine the impact of COVID-19 on the operating volume for trauma surgeries and to determine how the pandemic affected the management of fragility hip fractures (FHFs) in non-COVID patients at a single Institution.

Results: The first result was a statistically significant reduction in the overall operative volume of orthopedic trauma during the period of the first lockdown and an increase in the mean age of patients undergoing surgery, as expected. As regard to the second aim, the incidence of FHFs remained almost unchanged during the periods analysed. The population examined were superimposable in terms of demographics, comorbidities, type of fracture, peri-operative complications, percentage of operations performed within 48 hours from hospitalization and 1-year outcome.

Discussion: Our results are in line with those already present in the Literature.

Conclusions: Our study revealed a significant impact of the restrictive anti-contagion measures on the overall orthopedic surgical volume, but, at the same time, we could affirm that the pandemic did not affect the management of FHFs in non-COVID patients, and their results.

Keywords: COVID-19; fragility fractures; fragility hip fracture; geriatric trauma; proximal femur; trauma surgery.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Graphical illustration of the progression of the number of weekly performed surgical procedures at our Institution during the 2020 lockdown period, compared to 2019 historical series and 2021 “normal pandemic” period.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Graphical illustration with column chart of the overall surgical volume of the three periods (2019, 2020 and 2021). Surgical procedures for FHFs are highlighted.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Comorbidities distribution among patients who underwent surgical procedure for proximal femur fracture.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Graphical illustration with column chart of patients’ recovery of walking during the three periods analysed (2019, 2020 and 2021).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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