Background and purpose — COVID-19 lockdowns have resulted in noteworthy changes in trauma admissions. We report and compare the incidence and characteristics of severe injuries (New Injury Severity Score [NISS] > 15) during the COVID-19 lockdown in Finland with earlier years. Methods — We retrospectively analyzed incidence rate, injury severity scores, injury patterns, and mechanisms of injury of all severely injured patients (NISS >15) in 4 Finnish hospitals (Tampere University Hospital, Kuopio University Hospital, Central Finland Hospital, Mikkeli Central Hospital) during the 11-week lockdown period (March 16–May 31, 2020) with comparison with a matching time period in earlier years (2016–2018). These 4 hospitals have a combined catchment area of 1,150,000 people or roughly one-fifth of the population of Finland. Results — The incidence rate of severe injuries during the lockdown period was 4.9/10 5 inhabitants (95% CI 3.7–6.4). The incidence rate of severe injuries during years 2016–2018 was 5.1/10 5 inhabitants (CI 3.9–6.5). We could not detect a significant incidence difference between the lockdown period and the 3 previous years (incidence rate difference –0.2 (CI –2.0 to 1.7). The proportion of traffic-related accidents was 55% during the lockdown period and 51% during previous years. There were no detectable differences in injury patterns. During the lockdown period, the mean age of patients was higher (53 years vs. 47 years, p = 0.03) and the rate of severely injured elderly patients (aged 70 or more) was higher (30% vs. 16%). Interpretation — Despite heavy social restrictions, the incidence of severe injuries during the lockdown period was similar to previous years. Notably, a decline in road use and traffic volumes did not reduce the number of severe traffic accidents. Although our data is compatible with a decrease of 2.0 to an increase of 1.7 severely injured patients per 10 5 inhabitants, we conclude that severely injured patients do not disappear even during pandemic and stabile hospital resources are needed to treat these patients.
【초록키워드】 COVID-19, pandemic, lockdown, hospital, Characteristics, Patient, incidence rate, age, incidence, university, patients, mechanism, trauma, score, Injury, Elderly patient, Central Finland, traffic accidents, Injury Severity Score, injury severity scores, Volume, Admissions, 95% CI, treat, decrease, severity scores, Result, Finnish, analyzed, detect, proportion, detectable, changes in, did not reduce, the mean, New, hospital resource, Kuopio, Mikkeli, 【제목키워드】 COVID-19, lockdown, Characteristics, Patient,