Evaluation of containment measures’ effect on orthopaedic trauma surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic: a retrospective comparison between 2019 and 2020

BACKGROUND: There is no available information about the effect of containment measures on trauma surgery activity. The aim of this study was to analyse and report the containment measures’ impact on trauma surgery activity during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to quickly react and adjust in case of a new sanitary crisis and containment. METHODS: An original epidemiological study was performed in our trauma centre in France. Data from trauma surgeries performed during the pre-containment (from March 1 to March 16, 2020), containment (from March 17 to April 17, 2020) and reference (from March 1 to April 17, 2019) periods were compared. The primary outcome was the number of patients operated on daily and the daily operating room time. Clinical data, delay for surgery, mechanism of injury and injury pattern were also reviewed. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant decrease in the number of patients operated upon daily (− 39,8%, p value < 0.001) and daily operating room time (− 35.5%, p value < 0.001) between the reference and containment periods and between the pre-containment and containment periods (respectively, − 35.0%, p value < 0.001 and − 28.7%, p value 0.002). No differences were reported between the reference and pre-containment periods for daily-operated patients (p value 0.359). CONCLUSION: Containment measures had a direct impact on trauma surgery activity with a decrease of a third of trauma surgery activity. Those results could be useful if a new containment occurred.