Assessment of the Effects of the COVID-19 Lockdown on Trauma at AaBET Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

INTRODUCTION: A novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) broke out in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, in December 2019 that continues to pose major challenges to trauma care around the world. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of COVID-19 on the pattern of traumatic injuries and outcomes. METHODOLOGY: This retrospective, descriptive study was conducted over a three-month period at Addis Ababa Burn Emergency and Trauma (AaBET) Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It compared pre- and post-COVID-19 data from the hospital registry and reports. Specifically, data from March through May, 2019 (pre-COVID-19) were compared to data from March through May, 2020 (during COVID-19). The data were analyzed using SPSS 20.0. Descriptive analyses of the variables are reported as numbers and percentages. RESULTS: There were a total of 5179 emergency visits during the study period, of which 2763 were trauma cases (53.4%). Among trauma cases, 1441 (52.1%) were attributable to road traffic injuries. During the COVID-19 period, 1901 patients were admitted, of which 1412 (74.3%) were trauma cases. Of the trauma cases during the COVID-19 period, 476 (33.7%) were attributable to road traffic injuries. There was a 42% decrease in emergency visits during the COVID-19 period. Although there was a 4.5% rise in trauma cases during the COVID-19, traffic injury-related trauma cases decreased by 50.7% during the same period. A significant increase in non-road traffic injury was noted during the lockdown period. These include interpersonal and domestic violence, and significant decreases were noted in multiple site injuries. Further, admissions were significantly decreased. CONCLUSION: During the period of lockdown, there was a significant decrease in road traffic injuries in AaBET hospital and an increase in non-road traffic injuries. Implementation of preventive measures will decrease road-traffic injury burden.