Treatment of patients with orthopaedic trauma during COVID-19 epidemic / 中华创伤骨科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To report our experience in treatment of patients with orthopaedic trauma during COVID-19 epidemic.Methods:We retrospectively analyzed the 67 patients with orthopedic trauma who had been treated at Department of Orthopaedics, Peking Union Medical College Hospital from February 1 to March 31, 2020. After screening for COVID-19 infection was performed under strict protection, the patients were diagnosed and assigned to outpatient emergency treatment or hospitalization according to their specific condition. Twenty-six patients were treated at the outpatient emergency department. They were 8 males and 18 females with an average age of 69.5 years. Of them, 6 with vertebral compression fracture were placed on bed brakes, 14 with limb fracture immobilized after close reduction, 2 with skin laceration treated with debridement and suture, and 4 with hip fracture immobilized in bed. In the 41 hospitalized patients, there were 14 males and 27 females with an average age of 68.5 years. In them, hemiarthroplasty was performed for 7 femoral neck fractures, kyphoplasty for 5 vertebral compression fractures, total elbow arthroplasty for one humeral intercondylar fracture, exploration and suture for one case of Achilles tendon rupture, and internal fixation surgery for the remaining 27 cases.Results:Most of the patients had osteoporotic fractures which accounted for 61.5% (16/26) of the outpatients and 68.3% (28/41) of the inpatients, respectively. The duration from injury to surgery averaged 2.3 days and the length of hospitalization 4.5 days for the 41 hospitalized patients, decreased compared with the corresponding data (3.1 days and 11.5 days) for the similar inpatients in the same period last year. In the 41 inpatients, fever was observed upon hospitalization in 4 cases and after operation in 26 cases, and related to their primary injury or surgical trauma in all. Acute pulmonary embolism happened during operation in one patient with femoral shaft fracture.Conclusions:The prevention and control of COVID-19 should be continued. The awareness and behavior of health care providers are expected to be enhanced by strict screening protocol, protection and supervision. The proportion of elderly patients with osteoporotic fracture increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Shortage of blood was the major problem affecting the treatment. Timely surgical treatment should be indicated for the patients with orthopedic trauma, especially those with lower extremity fracture.