Routine surgeries during the COVID-19 pandemic: A French nationwide cohort study

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Epidemiology
• Surgical Outcomes

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted healthcare systems globally.
• Routine surgical procedures experienced significant impacts due to pandemic-related changes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify the changes in five key surgical procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• To assess the impact on cataract surgery, hip and knee arthroplasties, coronary angioplasty, and cardiac stimulation.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of French health insurance data from January 2019 to June 2021.
• Calculation of percentage changes in hospitalizations compared to expected numbers based on 2019 data.
• Consideration of intervention type (primary vs. revision) and emergency status.

Main Results:

• Significant decreases observed in cataract surgery (-21.9% in 2020, -5.0% in H1 2021), hip arthroplasty (-13.4% in 2020, -9.9% in H1 2021), and knee arthroplasty (-24.6% in 2020, -22.0% in H1 2021).
• Coronary angioplasty also decreased (-11.2% in 2020, -12.1% in H1 2021), with a high proportion performed in emergencies.
• Cardiac stimulation procedures showed minimal deviation from expected activity levels throughout the study period.

Conclusions:

• A substantial reduction in four major elective and non-elective surgeries persisted through mid-2021.
• The pandemic's impact on surgical volumes continued despite vaccine rollout.
• Cardiac stimulation procedures were relatively resilient to pandemic-related disruptions.