Epidemiology and incidence of paediatric orthopaedic trauma workload during the COVID-19 pandemic: A multicenter cohort study of 3171 patients

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has a major influence on all parts of society. AIM: To examine the consequences of the national lockdown and political initiatives during the first surge of the COVID-19 pandemic expressed by changes in incidences of musculoskeletal paediatric injuries. METHODS: Study design was a retrospective multicenter cohort study. A ‘pandemic’ cohort was established from 16 March 2020 to 21 April 2020, where all institutions including day care and schools were closed. A ‘pre-pandemic’ cohort was established from the same period in 2019 for comparison. Included were all patients admitted at the emergency departments with paediatric musculoskeletal injuries (aged 0-15 years) identified by a relevant musculoskeletal ICD-10 diagnosis (DSxxx), concussions (DZ033D), or burns (DT2xx). RESULTS: The ‘pre-pandemic’ cohort consisted of 2101 patients, and the ‘pandemic’ cohort consisted of 1070 patients, indicating a decrease of paediatric musculoskeletal injuries of 51%. The incidence of paediatric injury in the ‘pre-pandemic’ cohort was 10460/100000/year. In the ‘pandemic’ cohort, the incidence was 5344/100000/year. CONCLUSION: A resource re-allocation to help serve the COVID-19 patients might be possible without reducing the level of care for injury-related paediatric patients.