Early Postoperative Complications and Ambulation in Patients Treated for Hip Fractures, the Unexpected Positive Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparison Study.

BACKGROUND: The influence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused countries worldwide to implement lockdowns. Elective surgeries were temporarily suspended, with surgeries being performed only for emergent/urgent medical conditions such as hip fractures where early surgical intervention has shown decreased rates of morbidity/mortality. OBJECTIVES: To assess the indirect influence of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdown on hip fracture patients, considering factors such as time to surgery, early postoperative complications, and ambulation status. METHODS: A comparative retrospective study was conducted on consecutive patients presenting to our emergency department (ED) with hip fractures that were treated surgically (N=29) during a 1-month period during the government lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The treatments were compared to consecutive patients who presented with hip fractures and were treated surgically (N=44) during the same timeframe in the previous year (control). Comparisons were made using t-test, ANOVA test, Fisher's exact test, and chi-square test. RESULTS: The COVID-19 group was operated on sooner (20.34 vs. 34.87 hours), had fewer early postoperative complications (10.3% vs. 31.8%), had better ambulatory status at discharge, and experienced a shorter hospital stay (5.93 vs. 8.13 days) with more patients being discharged home (72.4% vs. 22.7%). CONCLUSIONS: Patients presenting with hip fractures to our ED during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown indirectly benefited from this situation by undergoing earlier surgical treatment, thus experiencing fewer early postoperative complications, faster ambulation, and sooner discharge.

The Pandemic's impacts on patients without Covid-19 on multidisciplinary aspects in emergency medicine care.

The emergence of Covid-19 has caused a pandemic and is a major public health concern. Covid-19 has fundamentally challenged the global health care system in all aspects. However, there is a growing concern for the subsequent detrimental effects of continuing delays or adjustments on time-dependent treatments for Covid-19 negative patients. Patients arriving to the ED with STEMIs and acute CVA are currently presumed to have delays due to Covid-19 related concerns. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic on non-Covid19 patients in emergency care settings. We conducted a retrospective study from February 2020 to April 2020 and compared this to a parallel period in 2019 to assess the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on three distinct non-Covid-19 ED diagnosis that require immediate intervention. Our primary outcome measures were time to primary PCI in acute STEMI, time to fibrinolysis in acute CVA, and time to femoral hip fracture correction surgery. Our secondary outcome measure included a composite outcome of length of stay in hospital and mortality. From 1 February 2020 to 30 April 2020, the total referrals to ED diagnosed with STEMI, Hip fracture and CVA of which required intervention were 197 within Covid-19 group 2020 compared to 250 in the control group 2019. Mean duration to intervention (PCI, surgery and tPA, respectively) did not differ between COVID-19 group and 2019 group. Among femoral hip fracture patients', the referral numbers to ED were significantly lower in Covid-19 era (p = 0.040) and the hospitalization stay was significantly shorter (p = 0.003). Among CVA patients', we found statistical differences among the number of referrals and the patients' age. Coping with the Covid-19 pandemic presents a challenge for the general healthcare system. Our results suggest that with proper management, despite the obstacles of isolation policies and social distancing, any negative impact on the quality of health care for the non-Covid-19 patients can be minimized in the emergency department setting.