Hip Fractures during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Our Experience in a General Hospital in Singapore

Introduction: Corona Virus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has spread rapidly and has caused overwhelming stress in healthcare systems worldwide. While the main focus of most healthcare systems are on measures in dealing with COVID19 cases, we aimed to look at making essential services available for non-COVID-19 patients and to describe our experience in handling proximal femoral fractures in the elderly patients in Singapore. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed cases of hip fracture surgeries on patients ages 65 years old and above at a single institution from 1 January 2020 – 30 April 2020. Results: The study had a total of 153 cases of hip fracture surgeries. The patients had a mean age of 82 years old (65-107) with 30% (46) males and 70% (107) females. There were 48% (74) neck of femur fractures and 51% (79) intertrochanteric fractures. Conclusion: Preparations for future pandemics should include measures to handle vulnerable group of patients such as elderly patients with Hip fractures. Maintaining optimized care, ensuring good outcomes and preventing mortality from these non-COVID-19 patients should still be maintained while maintaining protection and preventing burn out of the healthcare staff.