Is it Safe and Effective for the Orthopaedic Medical Staff to Provide Support in Combating Against COVID-19 Pandemic? A Retrospective Investigation from Wuhan, China

Background: During the pandemic of COVID-19, shortage of physicians and intensivists become a major problem. Medical staff from other specialties to provide support is a common measure adopted by many countries. In Wuhan, orthopaedic surgeons of our hospital played their role.  Methods: We investigated the number of orthopaedic surgeons and nurses who provided the support, the time span of work, the number of the infected staff during the support, the number of COVID-19 patients the surgeons treated and the cure rate, the performance of the surgeons assessed by the specialists and patients, and the number of the infected staff during the pandemic.   Findings: 12 surgeons and 11 nurses provided support in the fields of respiration, infectious disease, ICU and fever clinic. 34 surgeons and 58 nurses worked in the designated wards restructured from the orthopaedic building for COVID-19 patients. The average time span of work for the surgeons and nurses was 14.78 ± 3.64 days and 24.77 ± 7.58 days, respectively. No staff was infected during the support. The overall number of the treated hospitalised patients was 622. Of whom, 226 cases were mild; 318 cases were mild to moderate; 58 cases were severe or critical. The cure rate was 96.01%, 99.37%, and 52.00% respectively. The performances of the surgeons were scored 87.02 ± 3.17 and 90.69 ± 3.58 by the specialists and the treated patients, respectively. During the whole pandemic, 3 surgeons and 3 nurses who did not attend the support were infected due to inadequate precautions in the early stage. The morbidity was 4.92%, which was higher than that of the Wuhan citizens.   Interpretation: Our investigation clarifies that with adequate precautions, it is safe and effective for the orthopaedic staff to provide support to the work against COVID-19 though medical staff are at higher risk of COVID-19 infection. Funding Statement: None Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethics Approval Statement: This study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Board of Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University. The informed consent was signed by the participants.