Rasmussen MK, Larsen P, Rölfing JD, Kirkegaard BL, Thorninger R, Elsoe R. Epidemiology and incidence of paediatric orthopaedic trauma workload during the COVID-19 pandemic: A multicenter cohort study of 3171 patients. World J Orthop 2022; 13(1): 70-77 [PMID: 35096537 DOI: 10.5312/wjo.v13.i1.70]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Rasmus Elsoe, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Aalborg University Hospital, Hobrovej 18-20, Aalborg DK-9000, Denmark. rae@rn.dk
Research Domain of This Article
Orthopedics
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Orthop. Jan 18, 2022; 13(1): 70-77 Published online Jan 18, 2022. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v13.i1.70
Epidemiology and incidence of paediatric orthopaedic trauma workload during the COVID-19 pandemic: A multicenter cohort study of 3171 patients
Morten Kjerri Rasmussen, Peter Larsen, Jan Duedal Rölfing, Bertram Lahn Kirkegaard, Rikke Thorninger, Rasmus Elsoe
Morten Kjerri Rasmussen, Peter Larsen, Rasmus Elsoe, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg DK-9000, Denmark
Peter Larsen, Department of Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg DK-9000, Denmark
Jan Duedal Rölfing, Bertram Lahn Kirkegaard, Children’s Orthopaedics and Reconstruction, Danish Paediatric Orthopaedic Research, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus DK-8200, Denmark
Rikke Thorninger, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Regional Hospital Randers, Randers 8930, Denmark
Author contributions: Larsen P, Rölfing JD, Elsoe R designed the research study; Rasmussen MK, Kirkegaard BL, Thorninger R performed the research; Rasmussen MK, Larsen P, Rölfing JD, Elsoe R analyzed the data; Rasmussen MK, Larsen P wrote the manuscript; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Aalborg University Hospital. The Danish Data Protection Agency approved the study.
Informed consent statement: This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee and with the ethical principles of the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki.
Conflict-of-interest statement: We have no financial relationships to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Rasmus Elsoe, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Aalborg University Hospital, Hobrovej 18-20, Aalborg DK-9000, Denmark. rae@rn.dk
Received: September 16, 2021 Peer-review started: September 16, 2021 First decision: December 9, 2021 Revised: December 10, 2021 Accepted: January 11, 2022 Article in press: January 11, 2022 Published online: January 18, 2022 Processing time: 123 Days and 0.8 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had a major influence on all parts of society. During the total lockdown of the Danish society, we noticed a substantial change in the pediatric and adolescent trauma.
Research motivation
We aimed to quantify the change in workload and estimate the incidence rates.
Research objectives
The aim was to examine the consequences of the national lockdown and political initiatives during the first surge of the COVID-19 pandemic expressed by changes in incidences of musculoskeletal paediatric injuries.
Research methods
We compared the epidemiology of pediatric and adolescent trauma during the lockdown period of approximately one month with the same period of the previous year.
Research results
The ‘pre-pandemic’ cohort consisted of 2101 patients, and the ‘pandemic’ cohort consisted of 1070 patients, indicating a decrease of paediatric musculoskeletal injuries of 51%. The incidence of paediatric injury in the ‘pre-pandemic’ cohort was 10460/100000/year. In the ‘pandemic’ cohort, the incidence was 5344/100000/year.
Research conclusions
A resource re-allocation to help serve the COVID-19 patients might be possible without reducing the level of care for injury-related paediatric patients.
Research perspectives
If new lockdowns are enforced, hospitals and emergency and orthopedic departments in particular may be able to redistribute workforce without compromising patient care.
