Reaching a new 'normal' after COVID pandemic and orthopaedic implications

Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Orthopedic Surgery in Three Centers from Romania

The COVID-19 pandemic has put an enormous burden on healthcare systems. As a direct consequence, many elective procedures were cancelled and available resources were relocated to emergencies and COVID-19 patients. We aimed to analyze the impact on orthopedic surgery in Romania. We performed a retrospective analysis of orthopedics and trauma cases admitted over the first six months of 2019 and 2020 in three representative clinics. In total, there were 1900 patients: 1241 from Timisoara, 216 from Cluj-Napoca, and 443 from Bucharest. In April, activity for all cases in the regional trauma center dropped to 23.8% and stopped in the other two. No arthroscopies or elective joint replacements were performed in April. By June, hospital admissions resumed for trauma cases while arthroscopies and joint replacements still lagged behind.

How fast is the peer-review process for orthopaedic publications related to the Covid-19 pandemic?

PURPOSE

This study's primary objective is to evaluate the time spent in the peer-review process for orthopaedic publications related to the Covid-19 pandemic. The secondary objective is to evaluate the countries' and journals' contributions in these publications.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We carried a search on August 1st, 2020, in one database (PubMed) using limited search terms to identify the orthopaedic publications related to the Covid-19 pandemic. After a filtration process, we evaluated the eligible article to identify the prevalence of different articles types, different countries, and journal contributions in these publications. The evaluation of the time spent in the peer-review process was done by obtaining the submission and acceptance dates.

RESULTS

Of the 231 articles eligible for initial assessment, review articles were the most common article type published (51%), 48 countries published articles in a unique 78 journals. Evaluation of the peer-review process in 147 articles revealed that the mean time from submission to acceptance was 14.3 ± 15.8 days (range from 0 to 74), the peer-review process took less than 30 days in 127 (86.4%) articles, 15 (10.2%) articles were accepted within the first day of submission.

CONCLUSION

Orthopaedic community contributed significantly to the publications related to the Covid-19 pandemic, with a contribution from many countries and journals. The peer-review process was notably shortened for some articles.