The Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the Practice of Hand Surgery in Singapore

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is rapidly evolving. Tan Tock Seng Hospital and the National Centre for Infectious Disease see the majority of confirmed and suspected cases in Singapore. This article describes the impact of COVID-19 on the practice of hand and reconstructive microsurgery (HRM) in our institution. It details our department's response as the situation escalated and the impact on the HRM elective and emergency workload, including the use of personal protective equipment on the surgical practice of HRM, as well as the effects of the condition on social and academic life.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Practice of Hand and Upper Extremity Surgeons

“…Like many other specialties, hand surgery has also been affected by the reduced anesthesia support, reduced number of beds for inpatient stays, and the reassignment of hand surgery staff and doctors to pandemic-related duties, etc. [6]. Many medical and surgical societies got together and devised various strategies on how to balance the surgical and safety needs of the patients and, despite constraints, how to best manage their resource allocation and contribute to mitigation efforts in place during the pandemic [7][8][9][10][11][12][13].…”

“…Other researchers have studied the effect of the pandemic on many different specialties such as orthopedic surgery, maxillofacial surgery, plastic surgery, minimal access surgery, and transplant surgery [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. However, a comprehensive analysis of the effect of COVID-19 on hand surgery has not been done.…”

“…Our study looks not only at the clinical practice aspects but also at clinical volume and human resource issues. The second study on COVID-19 in the field of hand surgery was done by Hwee et al [ 6 ]. They shared a single-center experience during the early period of COVID-19.…”

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Trauma and Orthopaedic Service in the Republic of Ireland

“…All over the world, different actions were put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic by orthopaedic surgeons. [22][23][24] In this study, formalised patient care was created at the hospital level. Upon arrival in the emergency room, suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients followed a circuit sealed from COVID-19 negative patients.…”

Availability of COVID-19 Information from National and International Hand Surgery Society Websites

“…Hand surgeons are forced to reconsider almost every facet of their clinical practice to maintain emergency and essential hand surgery. [2][3][4] National and international surgery societies are seen as reliable sources of information for clinical information and guidelines. 5 However, no studies have assessed the information available on national and international hand surgery societies' web sites.…”