Trauma care and COVID-19 pandemic
Anjan Trikha, Chhavi Sawhney, Yudhyavir Singh, Kajal Jain, Ravindra Sawhney
Abstract
The Coronavirus SARS- CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has overwhelmed the ability of health care systems all over the world. With the spread of the disease, countries have adopted different models to reorganize infrastructure and reallocate the resources to deal with the pandemic. All the nonurgent hospital services have been postponed. But, trauma and emergency services continue to function according to the established protocols with few modifications. During the pandemic, trauma care is based on clinical urgency, safety of the patient as well as health care workers (HCWs) and conservation of resources. The strategies include non-operative management if possible, restricting the number of personnel and utilization of remote consultation or telemedicine. In the present article, we discuss the triage and management of trauma victim during the pandemic, indications for emergency surgery and psychological impact of the pandemic. We also discuss the future challenges during the post-COVID-19 phase.