Orthopedic Trauma Care During the COVID-19 Epidemic - New Challenges?

Asaf Acker¹, Amir Korngreen^1,3, Tai Friezm^1,4 & Zvi Perry, H.^2*

¹Orthopedic Ward, Soroka University Medical Center (SUMC), Beer-Sheva, Israel
²Surgery A Ward, Soroka University Medical Center (SUMC), Beer-Sheva, Israel
³Head, Orthopedic Trauma Unit, Soroka University Medical Center (SUMC), Beer-Sheva, Israel
⁴Head, Orthopedic Ward, Soroka University Medical Center (SUMC), Beer-Sheva, Israel

Dr. Zvi Perry, H., Surgery A Ward, Soroka University Medical Center (SUMC), Beer-Sheva, Israel.

Keywords: Orthopedic Trauma; Care

Abstract

In the past few months, the entire world is changing before our eyes due to the recent Covid-19 outbreak, with an alarming number of patients being influenced directly or indirectly by the virus spread. Health systems, together with economic systems, are forced to transform their usual course of action and prioritize treatment on the basis of urgency and limited resources.
Orthopedic trauma by its nature deals with relatively urgent cases, some more than others, and while some decrease in the volume of high energy trauma cases is probably expected (due to the rapidly expanding worldwide civilian quarantine), a steady inflow of patients with various types of fractures mandating surgery, including fragility hip fractures, is still continuously streaming into hospitals.

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