Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on orthopedic surgical practice: international study

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the clinical practice in orthopedic units.Methods An online survey was sent by e-mail to orthopedic surgeons practicing in different parts of the world.Results This study showed that orthopedic surgery plan management was adapted to respond more effectively to the COVOD-19 pandemic while maintaining the continuity of health care and ensuring protection of medical staff and patients. Among the introduced measures, elective surgery was postponed to free-up beds for suspected or COVID-19 positive patients requiring hospitalization. Additionally, the number of outpatient visits was considerably decreased and non-urgent visits were postponed to reduce the flow of patients in and out of hospitals and therefore minimize the risk of contamination. Interestingly, data revealed the willingness of orthopedic surgeons to take care of COVID-19 positive patients and support their colleagues in intensive care units, if needed.Conclusions Though, orthopedic surgeons are not in the frontline, they have an important role to play to face the increasing pressure due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Based on these findings, publication of international orthopedic practice guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic would be of great benefit to health practitioners in general and orthopedic surgeons in particular.

The effect of COVID-19 on orthopedic elective/emergency procedures in a tertiary hospital Riyadh Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional study

“…Many healthcare systems, including ours, decided to cancel or reduce elective hospital admissions along with routine and unnecessary outpatient visits. The reasoning for such action was to allocate the workforce to areas in need, protect the vulnerable population from acquiring the virus in hospitals, utilize wards, intensive care unit (ICU) beds, ventilators to almost full capacity for COVID-19 infected patients, and preserve resources to fight the emerging virus [ [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] ]. As orthopedic surgeons at the beginning of this pandemic, we were not expected to deal directly with infected patients as our fellows who covered medical, emergency, isolation, and ICU services.…”

“…As orthopedic surgeons at the beginning of this pandemic, we were not expected to deal directly with infected patients as our fellows who covered medical, emergency, isolation, and ICU services. But as the healthcare system was stretched to the maximum, orthopedic teams with other surgical specialties were called to help [ 6 , 10 , 12 ]. The catastrophic effect of this global pandemic on the economy, healthcare systems, countries' resources, and lives cannot be unnoticed, with 6,261,708 deaths worldwide registered on May 14th, 2022 [ 13 ].…”