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German Congress of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (DKOU 2021)

26. - 29.10.2021, Berlin

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Impact of the first COVID-19 Shutdown on patient volumes and surgical procedures of a Level I Trauma Center

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  • presenting/speaker Carolin Kreis - Universitätsklinikum Münster, Klinik für Unfall-, Hand- und Wiederherstellungschirurgie, Albert-Schweitzer-Campus 1, Münster, Germany
  • Birte Ortmann - Universitätsklinikum Münster, Klinik für Unfall-, Hand- und Wiederherstellungschirurgie, Albert-Schweitzer-Campus 1, Münster, Germany
  • Moritz Freistühler - Universitätsklinikum Münster, Medizinkontrolling, Münster, Germany
  • René Hartensuer - Universitätsklinikum Münster, Klinik für Unfall-, Hand- & Wiederherstellungschirurgie, Münster, Germany
  • Hugo van Aken - Universitätsklinikum Münster, Klinik für Anästhesie und operative Intensivmedizin, Münster, Germany
  • Michael Johannes Raschke - Universitätsklinikum Münster, Klinik für Unfall-, Hand- und Wiederherstellungschirurgie, Albert-Schweitzer-Campus 1, Münster, Germany
  • Benedikt Schliemann - Universitätsklinikum Münster, Klinik für Unfall-, Hand- und Wiederherstellungschirurgie, Albert-Schweitzer-Campus 1, Münster, Germany

Deutscher Kongress für Orthopädie und Unfallchirurgie (DKOU 2021). Berlin, 26.-29.10.2021. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2021. DocAB67-819

doi: 10.3205/21dkou417, urn:nbn:de:0183-21dkou4178

Published: October 26, 2021

© 2021 Kreis et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Outline

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Objectives: Background: In December 2019, COVID-19 was first recognized in Wuhan, China, and led to a worldwide pandemic. As a result, the German government implemented a shutdown in March 2020, affecting outpatient and hospital care. Aim of the present article was to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 shutdown on patient volumes and surgical procedures of a Level I Trauma Center in Germany.

Methods: All emergency patients of a German Level I Trauma Center were recorded retrospectively during the COVID-19 shutdown and compared to a calendar-matched control period in 2019 (CTRL). Total emergency patient contacts including trauma mechanisms and injury patterns as well as operation numbers (elective vs. emergency operations) were recorded including absolute numbers, incidence proportions and risk ratios.

Results: During the shutdown period, we observed a decrease of emergency patient cases (417) compared to CTRL (575), a decrease of elective cases (42 during CTRL vs. 13 during shutdown) and a decrease of the total number of operations (397 during CTRL vs. 325 during shutdown period). Incidence proportions of emergency operations increased from 8.2% to 12.2% during the shutdown period and elective surgical cases decreased (11.1% CTRL vs. 4.3% shutdown). As we observed a decrease for most trauma mechanisms and injury patterns, we found an increasing incidence proportion for severe open fractures from 0.9% (CTRL) to 2.6% during shutdown. Household related injuries were reported with an increasing incidence proportion from 26.8% (CTRL) to 47.5% (shutdown). Furthermore, during shutdown period we found an increasing tendency of trauma and injuries related to psychological disorders.

Conclusion: This analysis shows a decrease of total patient numbers in an emergency department of a Level I Trauma Center and a decrease of the total number of operations during the shutdown period. Concurrently, we observed an increase of severe open fractures and emergency operations. Furthermore, trauma mechanism changed with less traffic, work and sports related accidents.