The deep impact of novel CoVID-19 infection in an Orthopedics and Traumatology Department: the experience of the Piacenza Hospital

Abstract

Since February 21st, 2020 CoVID-19 spread throughout all Italy expanding like a "tsunami" from Codogno (Lodi, Lombardy, Northern Italy) to neighboring cities. In a few days Lodi, Piacenza, Milano, Brescia and Bergamo were forced to deal with this disaster starting the lockdown at different time. No national plan had been prepared. As result, CoVID-19 has paralyzed the Italian healthcare system. At time of writing, in Italy there are 169 323 infected patients and 22 260 deaths. Italy is fighting hard to manage CoVID-19 crisis even if most hospitals were unprepared to deal with massive influx of critically ill CoVID-19 patients. Piacenza in Emilia-Romagna region (Northern Italy) is one of the epicenters of the Italian pandemic, and the local hospital - Guglielmo da Saliceto - has quickly become a "CoVID-19 hospital" with the great effort of all the medical staff. Here we report the experience of our hospital, particularly the strategy adopted in the Orthopedics and Traumatology Department.

Figure 1.

General protection.

Figure 2.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

Figure 3.

CT scan findings of our colleague with severe interstitial pneumonia, intubated in critical condition in the Intensive Care Unit.

Figure 4.

CT scan findings of paucisymptomatic patient.

Figure 5.

X-Ray femur fracture.

Figure 6.

X-Ray homer fracture.

Figure 7.

X-Ray wrist fracture.