Changes in trends during the COVID-19 lockdown: An urban, Level-1 trauma center's experience

Abstract

Background A community lockdown has a profound impact on its citizens. Our objective was to identify changes in trauma patient demographics, volume, and pattern of injury following the COVID-19 lockdown. Methods A retrospective review was conducted at a Level-1 Trauma Center from 2017 to 2020. Results A downward trend in volume is seen December–April in 2020 (R 2 = 0.9907). February through April showed an upward trend in 2018 and 2019 (R 2= 0.80 and R 2 = 0.90 respectively), but a downward trend in 2020 (R 2 = 0.97). In April 2020, there was 41.6% decrease in total volume, a 47.4% decrease in blunt injury and no decrease in penetrating injury. In contrast to previous months, in April the majority of injuries occurred in home zip codes. Conclusions A community lockdown decreased the number of blunt trauma, however despite social distancing, did not decrease penetrating injury. Injuries were more likely to occur in home zip codes.

Improving injury surveillance data quality: a study based on hospitals contributing to the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset

“…This is of particular relevance since the onset of the pandemic, which has had a profound impact on home injuries and overall injury profiles. [15][16][17][18][19] The effect of lockdowns and stay-at-home orders on home injury patterns and trends needs to be monitored for the Narratives with word counts <5 (%)…”

“…Place of injury coding is also required for surveillance of injuries in the home. This is of particular relevance since the onset of the pandemic, which has had a profound impact on home injuries and overall injury profiles 15–19 . The effect of lockdowns and stay‐at‐home orders on home injury patterns and trends needs to be monitored for the overall evaluation of the impact of the pandemic, and also for adequate allocation of health service resources.…”

National evaluation of the association between stay-at-home orders on mechanism of injury and trauma admission volume

“…The pattern of unintentional injury, which showed a steep decrease and then gradual rise to expected levels after a SAH order was put in place was not the same as for assault injuries which rose unabated during the lockdowns (eFigure 2) This corroborates on a national scale previous reports in 2020 on the increase of firearm violence during the pandemic. [14] , [15] , [16] , [17] What is evident is that stay-at-home orders do not significantly reduce trauma admission rates, implying the need to maintain trauma center readiness including adequate human and physical resources in spite of the pressures imposed by the pandemic. These data suggest that regional planning should maintain capabilities for complex trauma care during times of increased patient volumes.…”

COVID-19 lockdown and demand for health care of children and adolescents with burn

“…The specific frequency of burns may or may not vary. According to a recent study by Jaber et al, a community lockdown reduced blunt trauma but did not reduce penetrating injury, and injuries such as burns were more likely to occur at home despite social separation 2 . Burns may still be an issue during the lockdown, but the patient may not be able to get to the hospital, thus local basic care may be used to treat them at home 2 .…”