The epidemiology of knee arthroscopy during coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) has made a huge impact on global health services including in orthopedic surgical service. Knee surgery (including arthroscopy) is one of the emerging surgical services in Indonesia. As the pandemic goes on, some of the patients prefer to postpone or cancel the surgery planning. AIM: We tried to evaluate the epidemiology of knee arthroscopy procedure during the COVID-19 pandemic at our institution. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospective data collection was performed on all patients who received knee arthroscopy procedures at Prof Dr. R. Soeharso Orthopaedic Hospital, Surakarta, Indonesia during the year 2020. The study evaluated the demographic data, the indication of surgery, and trends of the number of surgeries according to period time. This study also compared the data of knee arthroscopy procedures performed during the corresponding period before the pandemic in Indonesia (January to December 2019). RESULTS: There was a total of 88 knee arthroscopy surgery performed during the period January to December 2020. There was a decrease in the number of knee arthroscopy during April and May 2020. The decreasing number of surgeries also occurred in November 2020 which was later followed by the increasing number of surgeries in December 2020. Among all patient received knee arthroscopy during 2020, none have post-operative complication or infection due to SARS-Cov-2. CONCLUSION: There was some difference in the epidemiology of knee arthroscopy during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the non-pandemic era. Comprehensive preoperative screening is needed before resume elective surgical service.