Impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on epidemiology, treatment, and outcome of major trauma in Japan in 2020: a retrospective observational nationwide registry‐based study

AIM: The nationwide impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) pandemic on major trauma in Japan is unknown. The nationwide registry‐based data of the Japanese Trauma Data Bank were analyzed to elucidate the impact of COVID‐19 on the epidemiology, treatment, and outcomes of major trauma patients. METHODS: Among patients transported directly from the injury site by ambulance with an Injury Severity Score of ≥16, we compared patients managed from April to December in 2019 to those managed from April to December in 2020. RESULTS: In total, 9792 patients were included in this study (2019, n = 5194; 2020, n = 4598). There were no significant differences in age or sex, but there were significant differences between 2019 and 2020 in the rates of “self‐injury (suicide)”, “motor vehicle accident”, “fall from height”, “fall down”, and “fall to the ground”, which are factors associated with patient age. Injury severity in 2019 and 2020 did not differ to a statistically significant extent, but the rate of major spinal injury increased. The time of prehospital care significantly increased in 2020 compared to 2019. There was no noticeable change in hospital treatment or in‐hospital mortality between 2019 and 2020. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that the COVID‐19 pandemic might have altered the injuries of major trauma; however, medical services for major trauma were well supplied in Japan in 2020.