Background
The aim of the study was to evaluate and compare the demographic characteristics, the trauma mechanism, and fracture types between patients under 20 years of age, 20-65 years of age, and over 65 years of age between the COVID-19 pandemic and the pre-pandemic period.
Methods
Patients who were hospitalized and treated for orthopedic treatment between 10 March and 1 June during the pandemic period were retrospectively analyzed. Control group consisted of patients admitted to the hospital in the same time interval in 2019.The patients were divided into three groups, under 20 years of age, between 20-65 years of age, and over 65 years of age. The patients’ data included age, gender, trauma mechanism, fracture type, any COVID-19 radiological or clinical symptoms.
Results
The number of patients > 65 years old admitted to orthopaedic trauma center were high at pandemic interval compared to pre-pandemic time. When the groups were compared for patients of 20-65 years old; there was a significant difference for the fracture type (p<0.05). Lower extremity fractures were high at pre-pandemic group whereas multiple traumas were high at pandemic group. For sub-group 20-65 ages, low energy traumas were higher at pre-pandemic group whereas high energy traumas were more frequent at pandemic group.
Conclusion
We observed a decrease in fracture admission to ortopaedic trauma centers during COVID-19 pandemic for subgroups of < 20 years old and 20-65 years old ages, whereas there was a significant increase for > 65 years old age, most of them related to the osteoporotic hip fractures. So that older age group should be encouraged to mobilized at home and have permission to walk and make physical activity to avoid osteoporosis for a limited time daily.