Abstract: Objectives: Covid-19 pandemic has shown its massive impact on almost all aspects of human existence including social, economic and healthcare. Trauma victims are one such group of patients who have fallen prey to this worldwide crisis. Paucity of literature, lack of specific guidelines and prevailing panic has created new hurdles for those managing these patients. We performed this observational of first two months of this pandemic, to assess its impact on patient’s attendance and management, in view of novel challenges imposed due to pandemic scenario. Also, we attempted to formulate a pathway to guide management of Orthopaedic trauma patients.
Material and Methods: All patients of orthopaedic trauma attending to emergency department from 11th march 2020 to 10th may 2020 were included. Demography and data of patients regarding mechanism of injury, nature of injury, treatment provided (conservative and operative) were retrieved and assessed.
Result: Total number of ortho trauma patients seen in emergency department were ninety-six. Most common mechanism of injury was fall from height, followed by household slip. Only 39 patients were operated in the study duration, which was far less than the number in preceding 3 months. Out of 31 patients due for first follow-up only 14 patients turned up for physical follow up, 13 patients turned up via telemedicine facility.
Conclusion: The number of ortho-trauma patients attending emergency department have significantly reduced. We need to follow a middle path so that adequate medical care is provided to those who need it, without subjecting those who can wait to additional risk of contracting COVID infection.
