@article{ref1,
title="Pre-hospital and hospital trauma care during the Covid-19 lockdown - experience in a metropolitan European level 1 trauma centre",
journal="Zeitschrift für Orthopädie und Unfallchirurgie",
year="2023",
author="Scherer, Julian and Canal, Claudio and Kaufmann, Ernest and Jensen, Kai Oliver and Pape, Hans-Christoph and Neuhaus, Valentin",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Trauma case load is said to have declined during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially during the national lockdowns. Due to the altered frequency and changes in daily life, pre-hospital care (altered personal protective measurements) as well as mechanisms of trauma and initial trauma treatment may have changed. The purpose of this study was to assess differences in pre-hospital as well as initial treatment of trauma victims and trauma mechanisms during a national lockdown compared to the year before.   MATERIAL AND METHODS: Pre-hospital as well as clinical data from all trauma patients admitted to our metropolitan level 1 trauma center resuscitation room during the hard lockdown in Switzerland (March 17 to April 26, 2020) and the same time period in 2019 were analyzed retrospectively. <br><br>RESULTS: In total, we assessed 91 patients (51 lockdown cohort, 40 control cohort) with a mean age of 50.7 years. Significantly more trauma was sustained in the household environment during the lockdown (p = 0.015). Pre-hospital treatment remained similar between the two assessed groups. No difference was found in length of stay or mortality. In severely injured patients (ISS > 15), we found significantly fewer motor vehicle accidents (p = 0.018) and fewer horizontal decelerations (p = 0.006), but insignificantly more falls (p = 0.092) in the lockdown cohort. None of the patients in the lockdown cohort had a positive PCR test for Covid-19 on admission. <br><br>CONCLUSION: Trauma systems seem not to have changed during hard lockdowns in terms of pre-hospital treatment. Fewer severely injured patients due to motor vehicle accidents and horizontal decelerations, but more household-related injuries were seen in the lockdown cohort than in the control cohort. A qualitative analysis of treatment during the hard lockdown is needed to gain further insights into the effect of the pandemic on trauma care.  Keywords: CoViD-19-Road-Traffic  <p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1864-6697",
doi="10.1055/a-2039-3162",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1055/a-2039-3162"
}