Revisiting conservative orthopaedic management of fractures during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has brought the need to revisit the conservative management of orthopaedic injuries back into sharp focus. On the advent of COVID-19 pandemic, it has been acknowledged by the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) emergency COVID-19 and the National Health Service England (NHSE) guidelines to manage urgent orthopaedic and trauma conditions pragmatically balancing optimum treatment of patients against clinical safety with resource utilization .The current Coronavirus outbreak has refocussed orthopaedic minds on managing many injuries conservatively, which would have otherwise been managed with operative fixations. We revisit the role of conservative orthopaedic management of fractures in the context of COVID-19 and current guidelines.

Keywords: Bone fracture; COVID-19; Conservative treatment; Coronavirus; Pandemics.