Ross SW, McCartt JC, Cunningham KW, Reinke CE, Thompson KJ, Green JM, Thomas BW, Jacobs DG, May AK, Christmas AB, Sing RF. Emergencies do not shut down during a pandemic: COVID pandemic impact on Acute Care Surgery volume and mortality at a level I trauma center.
Am J Surg 2022;
224:1409-1416. [PMID:
36372581 PMCID:
PMC9575313 DOI:
10.1016/j.amjsurg.2022.10.030]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2022] [Revised: 09/23/2022] [Accepted: 10/13/2022] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND
The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volume and outcomes of Acute Care Surgery patients, and we hypothesized that inpatient mortality would increase due to COVID+ and resource constraints.
METHODS
An American College of Surgeons verified Level I Trauma Center's trauma and operative emergency general surgery (EGS) registries were queried for all patients from Jan. 2019 to Dec. 2020. April 1st, 2020, was the demarcation date for pre- and during COVID pandemic. Primary outcome was inpatient mortality.
RESULTS
There were 14,460 trauma and 3091 EGS patients, and month-over-month volumes of both remained similar (p > 0.05). Blunt trauma decreased by 7.4% and penetrating increased by 31%, with a concomitant 25% increase in initial operative management (p < 0.001). Despite this, trauma (3.7%) and EGS (2.9-3.0%) mortality rates remained stable which was confirmed on multivariate analysis; p > 0.05. COVID + mortality was 8.8% and 3.7% in trauma and EGS patients, respectively.
CONCLUSION
Acute Care Surgeons provided high quality care to trauma and EGS patients during the pandemic without allowing excess mortality despite many hardships and resource constraints.
Collapse