The following is a summary of “Impact of the COVID-19 Shelter-in-Place Order on Traumatic Brain Injuries in San Francisco, California,” published in the December 2023 issue of Emergency Medicine by Madhok et al.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2020, San Francisco, California, implemented a pivotal shelter-in-place (SIP) order that witnessed a significant decline in trauma cases, prompting emergency physicians to observe a distinct shift in conventional trauma mechanisms.

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to analyze shifts in Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) mechanisms in relation to SIP implementation.

They conducted a comprehensive review of the electronic medical records at San Francisco’s sole trauma center to identify and characterize patients diagnosed with head injuries in the emergency department (December 16, 2019, to June 16, 2020). With the chi-squared and Fisher’s exact tests as applicable, a comparative analysis of the epidemiological patterns before and after the COVID-19 lockdown was undertaken.

The result showed a 6-month study with 1,246 TBI visits. Bi-weekly TBI cases decreased by 36.64% 2 weeks after the COVID-19 SIP and then returned to baseline levels by June 2020. TBI patients during SIP were older (mean age: 53.3 vs. 58.2 post-SIP; P< 0.001)], [male (OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.14–1.81), and [less to be 17 or younger (8.9% vs. 0.5%, pre- to post-SIP; P= 0.003)]. Hispanic (27.2% vs. 21.7% pre- to post-SIP; P= 0.029) were also included. The proportion of TBI visits due to cycling accidents increased ([14.1% to 52.7%, P< 0.001]), while those due to pedestrians in road traffic accidents decreased ([37.2% to 12.7%, P=0.003]).

Investigators concluded that COVID-19’s impact on TBI patterns offers insights for optimizing disaster resource allocation.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0736467923004043