COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Orthopaedic Trauma Practice: A Global Perspective

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: We conducted a systematic review to evaluate the global impact on orthopaedic trauma admissions during the COVID-19 crisis and compare it to that in Saudi Arabia. METHODS: We conducted an extensive search of the PubMed and the Cochrane Central Register of Clinical Trials databases for articles published on orthopaedic trauma during the pandemic. We used the terms “orthopaedic trauma”, “coronavirus”, “covid-19”, and “Sars-cov-2” for the search. We retrieved data to assess the impact of COVID-19 on orthopaedic and trauma patients attending hospitals during the pandemic. Secondary outcomes included reports from various regions of the world, differences in patient age, gender, and comparison to the nonlockdown period. We excluded questionnaires, surveys, reviews, and meta-analyses. The studies were divided based on where they were conducted: the Americas; the United Kingdom; Europe; Asia; the Middle East; and Australia, including New Zealand. RESULTS: We retrieved 763 studies using the keywords and initially analyzed 70. We chose 23 studies for final analysis, which were all retrospective studies, from which we extracted 50% of our preset data. These articles included 16,383 patients who sought advice related to orthopaedic and trauma necessities during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, 61,559 patients sought advice for orthopaedic and trauma necessities. Most of the reports focused on adults, and in three studies, researchers reported on paediatric on orthopaedic patients. The average decrease in patients seeking orthopaedic and trauma assistance during the pandemic was 45.5 ± 20.4 (range 18.9–86%, p < 0.001). The largest decrease in patients seeking advice occurred in Asia (>60%), and the lowest occurred in Australia and New Zealand (about 20%, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Presentations of orthopaedic trauma during the COVID-19 during pandemic lockdown was less but not as profoundly as one may have expected.