Impact of strict population confinement on fracture incidence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Experience from a public Health Care Department in Spain

BACKGROUND: the COVID-19 pandemic has led to drastic “stay-at-home” measures for the population. The aim of this study was to know the influence of the population strict confinement on the presentation of the different types of fracture as well as on the needs of hospital admission by the Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology Service. METHODS: a retrospective observational analytical descriptive study was carried out on the population attended in the Emergency Services of two general hospitals in a public Health Care Department in Spain. Data were studied from the two-months confinement period in 2020 and compared with the same period in 2018 and 2019. RESULTS: A total of 56,332 emergency cases were included. There was a decrease in the total number of patients attended along the confinement period compared to the same period in the two previous years. Fracture cases decreased by 58,8% in the confinement period (330 in 2020; 715 in 2018 and 884 in 2019). Also there was a 37,6% reduction in fractures needing admission or surgery. The percentage distribution of the types of fractures that required admission resulted in a decrease in upper and lower limb fractures, whereas the number of vertebral and hip fractures remained unchanged. CONCLUSIONS: both the reduction of fractures attended in the emergency department and the maintenance of the number of hip fractures must be taken into account when establishing contingency plans in the event of a pandemic situation in order to properly plan human resources and materials.