Faria Giles, Virani Siddharth, Shaeir Mohammed, Velazquez-Ruta Patricia, Tadros Baha John, Arealis Georgios, Dhinsa Baljinder Singh, Relwani Jai
East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, Ashford, UK.
Shoulder Elbow. 2021 Feb;13(1):12-17. doi: 10.1177/1758573220977028. Epub 2020 Dec 6.
COVID-19 has had a significant impact on healthcare systems. We aim to quantify the impact of this outbreak on shoulder and elbow trauma in our institution.
We prospectively collected data on patients presenting to our hospital with shoulder and elbow injuries during COVID-19. This included the number of attendances to the emergency department, fracture clinic, inpatient admissions and operative treatments. This was compared to a pre-COVID-19 period. We also assessed the efficacy of telephone clinics.
There has been a noticeable decrease in the number of emergency department and fracture clinic attendances with upper limb complaints. The number of in-person fracture clinic reviews also decreased, with a reciprocal exponential increase in telephone consultations. We recorded a decrease in the number of shoulder and elbow trauma procedures performed. There was a small increase in the proportion of injuries treated conservatively during COVID-19. Our telephone clinics yielded a diagnosis and management plan in many cases and patient perspective appeared favourable.
We have noted significant change in the upper limb caseload. Certain injuries have reduced, likely due to COVID-19 lockdown. Moreover, we consider several changes to current practices could be taken forward after the pandemic.
新冠疫情对医疗系统产生了重大影响。我们旨在量化此次疫情对我院肩肘创伤的影响。
我们前瞻性地收集了新冠疫情期间因肩肘损伤前来我院就诊患者的数据。这包括急诊科就诊人数、骨折门诊就诊人数、住院人数及手术治疗情况。并与新冠疫情前的时期进行比较。我们还评估了电话门诊的效果。
上肢相关疾病的急诊科和骨折门诊就诊人数显著减少。面对面骨折门诊复诊人数也减少，电话咨询呈相应指数增长。我们记录到肩肘创伤手术例数减少。新冠疫情期间保守治疗损伤的比例略有增加。我们的电话门诊在许多病例中得出了诊断和管理方案，患者反馈良好。
我们注意到上肢病例数量有显著变化。某些损伤病例减少，可能是由于新冠疫情封锁所致。此外，我们认为疫情过后可以对当前做法进行一些改变。
