Abstract
Background: We aimed to investigate the variation of medical and surgical activities in pediatric orthopedics in Italy, during the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, in comparison with data from the previous two years. The differences among the first wave, phase 2 and second wave were also analyzed. Methods: We conducted a retrospective multicenter study regarding the clinical and surgical activities in pediatric orthopedics during the pandemic and pre-pandemic period. The hospital databases of seven tertiary referral centers for pediatric orthopedics and traumatology were queried for events regarding pediatric orthopedic patients from 1 March 2018 to 28 February 2021. Surgical procedures were classified according to the “SITOP Priority Panel”. An additional classification in “high-priority” and “low-priority” surgery was also applied. Results: Overall, in 2020, we observed a significant drop in surgical volumes compared to the previous two years. The decrease was different across the different classes of priority, with “high-priority” surgery being less influenced. The decrease in emergency department visits was almost three-fold greater than the decrease in trauma surgery. During the second wave, a lower decline in surgical interventions and a noticeable resumption of “low-priority” surgery and outpatient visits were observed. Conclusion: Our study represents the first nationwide survey quantifying the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on pediatric orthopedics and traumatology during the first and second wave.
Highlights
The year 2020 will be remembered as the “year of COVID-19” [1]
In 2020, we observed a significant drop in surgical activities of −23.7%
Analyzing the data by each center, we observed a significant heterogeneity among hospitals, due to geographical location and to predominant surgical activity, with hospitals with predominant trauma surgery being less affected (Tables S2–S4 in Supplementary Material)
Summary
The year 2020 will be remembered as the “year of COVID-19” [1]. The pandemic has dramatically impacted the organization and order of priorities in healthcare services globally. Was the first country in the Western world to suffer from the pandemic, and one of the most severely affected [2]. Following the discovery of the first clusters in late February 2020, an initial lockdown involving sixteen million people in northern Italy was imposed by the Italian government, and further turned into a national hard lockdown on 9 March 2020. As the contagion rate and death toll decreased, the so-called “Phase 2” started, with progressive reopening of ordinary activities involving social interactions by the second half of May. During the summer, people were free to move through Italy and many asymptomatic subjects likely contributed to spreading the infection and precipitating a more severe second wave that unsurprisingly started from September. From March 2020 to the end of February 2021, the number of positive cases in Italy exceeded 3 million, with over 100,000 deaths, in a country of about 60 million people [3]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
