Purpose: To investigate if changes to hospital operational models during the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted overall time to surgery (TtS) as well as morbidity and mortality rates of hip fractures (HFx).
Methods: 416 patients treated for OTA 31 fractures at a single institution between January 2019 and November 2020 were reviewed. TtS as well as morbidity and mortality rates were obtained from pre-pandemic and pandemic groups.
Results: 263 patients were treated pre-pandemic and 153 were treated during the pandemic. There were no significant differences in median TtS, readmission rates (p = 0.134), reoperation rates (p = 0.052), 30-day (p = 0.095) and 90-day (p = 0.22) mortality rates.
Conclusion: Reallocation of hospital resources in response to the COVID-19 pandemic did not negatively impact surgical timing or complications. TtS for HFx remains a challenge and often requires multidisciplinary care, which is complicated by a pandemic. However, this study demonstrates HFx standard of care can be maintained despite COVID-19 obstacles to treatment efficiency and efficacy.
Keywords: COVID-19; Hip fracture; Morbidity; Mortality; Pandemic; Trauma.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag France SAS, part of Springer Nature.