Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on orthopedic surgeon in Pakistan

Abstract

<p><strong>Background:</strong> The objective of our study is to assess the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on clinical practice as well as psychological impact on orthopedic surgeons of Pakistan.</p><p><strong>Method</strong>: An online survey involving orthopedic surgeons through social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook and also through email, to assess the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Our survey also aims to evaluate their state of mind and physical as well as emotional wellbeing in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.</p><p><strong>Results</strong>: Among 77 respondents, mostly 31 (40.3%) were consultant and mostly 28 (36.4%) having experience in field of orthopedics was between 5-10 years. This data revealed 48 (62.3%) respondents did not received any specific training or recommendations about COVID pandemic from their institute and only 37 (48.1%) reported they are well informed on latest COVID guidelines. Interestingly, this data revealed the willingness of orthopedic surgeons 30 (39%) to take care of COVID-19 positive patients in ICU.</p><p>67 (87%) feel anxious, stressed, furious, angry or depressed due to pandemic and most common fear among them was to infect their family members followed by getting infected and loss of their life and health. 40 (51.9%) did not think their institute is well equipped to deal COVID pandemic.</p><p><strong>Conclusions</strong>: Orthopedic community nevertheless have to play an important role in the face of an increasing psychological and emotional stress which comes from working in a post COVID era. The dread of getting infected while treating and the sinking feeling of spreading the contagion to their loved ones has put a massive toll on the emotional well-being and needs to be addressed through open and fair discussion.</p>

Opportunities arising from the COVID-19: an international orthopaedic surgeons’ perspective

“…There is no doubt that the pandemic resulted in an unprecedented challenge to the health care services including putting significant pressure on staff of all specialties [1]. However, the vast majority of publications on orthopaedic surgeons has focussed on the intuitive negative aspects [5][6][7][8][9][10][11]; nevertheless, any experience may also have a positive impact. The aim of this study was to collate the positive experiences reported by orthopaedic surgeons to identify important lessons for our future practice.…”

“…Although the negative effects of the pandemic have been previously reported in several publications pertaining to orthopaedic surgeons [5][6][7][8][9], the aforementioned positive changes brought to our orthopaedic practice by the pandemic have not been precisely recorded. Therefore, the rationale for this study is to conduct a global survey to record those positive experiences during the pandemic specifically for orthopaedic surgery, and thus capture the new ideas, perceptions and lessons learned which in turn can be used to promote future innovation and improvement in our everyday practice of orthopaedics.…”

“…Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been unpreceded strain on health care systems [1], which abruptly forced them to differently manage patients in the face of this potentially overwhelming demand [2,3]. There have been several negative aspects of the pandemic affecting orthopaedic surgery, including shutdown of planned operating with raised thresholds for the operative management of injuries and the re-deployment of staff to support colleagues in overwhelmed specialties [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. This has resulted in massive waiting lists for elective surgery, reduced training opportunities and increased negative mental health effects in staff members [6,12,13].…”

Research Productivity in Surgery from Pakistan: A Bibliometric Analysis (2001-2022)

“…A study displays outcomes of surgical management of colorectal cancer 6 . Publications are evident on experiences and challenges in different specialties, e.g., pediatric surgery, 7 breast surgery 8 , orthopedics 9 , operating department practitioners, 10 and many others.…”