Impact of Weather and Holidays on Orthopedic Emergency Room Crowding, Fractures, and Polytraumas in a Third-Level Referral Trauma Center in Europe.

Abstract

Background: Orthopedic trauma is a significant component of emergency department workloads worldwide. The relationship between weather conditions and injury rates is controversial in modern literature. Even less has been written to investigate bank holidays' influence on contusions, dislocations, fractures, and even polytrauma. Our study aimed to assess whether meteorological factors and national holidays could vary the workloads in the orthopedic ER of a European third-level trauma center. Materials and Methods: Our study consisted of a review of all the patients who underwent orthopedic evaluations in our institution's orthopedic emergency room between 2019 and 2023. Days were divided depending on weather (cloudy or sunny vs. rainy or stormy), day type (regular working days vs. national public holidays vs. Saturdays and Sundays), and presence or absence of COVID-19 restrictions. We also recorded the temperatures of each day. Cases were subdivided into three groups: cases without significant injuries (Group A), cases with isolated bone fractures, major tears or articular dislocations (Group B1), and polytrauma (Group B2). Results: Higher temperatures were associated with a significant increase in overall ER visits, isolated injuries, and polytrauma. Sunny or cloudy days had a significantly higher number of patients with all injury types compared to rainy or stormy days. Weekends saw a significant decrease in overall admissions and isolated injuries but a higher rate of polytrauma compared to weekdays. National holidays had a significantly lower number of admissions for all injury types compared to weekdays. Restrictions due to the pandemic significantly reduced overall ER visits. Conclusion: Temperatures, meteorological factors, and national holidays could vary the workloads in the orthopedic ER of a European third-level trauma center.