Lead the way or leave the way: Early experience of management of emergency pelvi-acetabular surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic at a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan.

Abstract

Objective: To report the early experience, the relationship of surgical site infection after pelvi-acetabular fracture fixation with certain possible risk factors, and organizational protocol for emergency pelvic surgery currently being used during the COVID-19 pandemic by an integrated team of orthopedic surgeons. Study Design: Prospective study. Setting: Department of Orthopedic and Spine Surgery, “Ghurki Trust Teaching Hospital Lahore, Pakistan. Period: March 2020, to August 2020. Material & Methods: A total of 25 patients diagnosed with acetabular fractures were included. Fracture patterns were classified according to judet and letournel and young burgess classification systems. Factors studied included patient’s age, gender, body mass index, fracture pattern, type of surgery, comorbidities, smoking status, associated injuries, surgical site infections and mortality. Results: In a total of 25 patients, 21(84.0%) were male and 4(16.0%) female patients with overall mean age as 38.04±14.58 years. Overall, mean BMI was 23.20±2.60 kg/m². There were 12(48.0%) patiens who had hypertension while 4 (16.0%) smokers. There were 21 (84.0%) patients who did not have any associated injuries while 3 (12.0%) had the associated extremities. The mean hospital stay of the patients was 5.08±0.76 days. The results revealed no significant association of Gender with these parameters (p > 0.001). Conclusion: There is no added risk of infection and mortality for the provision of emergency trauma services to pelvi-acetabular fractured patients even during panic and pandemic situations.