Background
Evidence increases to suggest that the reallocation of health care resources during considerable the COVID-19 pandemic impacts considerably any health system. This study describes the epidemiology and the outcome of major trauma patients admitted to centers in France during the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Methods
This retrospective observational study included all consecutive trauma patients aged 15 years and older admitted into 15 centers participating to the TraumaBase® registry in France during the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in France.
Results
Over a 4 years-study period, 5762 patients were admitted between the first week of February and mid-June. This cohort was split between patients admitted during the first 2020 pandemic wave in France (pandemic period, 1314 patients) and those admitted during the corresponding period in the three previous years (2017-2019, 4448 patients). Patient demographics changed substantially during the pandemic and more specifically during the lockdown period specially with a reduction in both absolute numbers admitted and the proportion of road traffic accidents (348 annually 2017-2019 [55.4 % of trauma admissions] vs 143 [36.8 %] in 2020 p<0.005). Mortality during the pandemic period and the difference between predicted and observed mortality was not different compared to the non-pandemic years.
Conclusions
During this first wave of COVID-19 in France, management of trauma patients admitted to regional Traumacenters was not significantly altered, despite medical resources being reallocated and reorganized. Mortality as well as prehospital and in hospital care remained stable throughout the period of the first pandemic wave despite a massive increase in demand for acute care beds.