Nationwide analysis of plastic and reconstructive procedural volume in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic

Authors

Daniel Mehrabian, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University, 1120 15th St, Augusta, GA 30912, USA.
Ivan Z. Liu, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University, 1120 15th St, Augusta, GA 30912, USA.
Haig H. Pakhchanian, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, 2300 I St NW, Washington, DC 20052, USA.
Omar H. Tarawneh, New York Medical College, 40 Sunshine Cottage Rd, Valhalla, NY 10595, USA.
Rahul Raiker, West Virginia University School of Medicine, 1 Medical Center Dr, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA.
Carter J. Boyd, Hansjörg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery, NYU Langone Health, 222 East 41st Street, New York, NY 10017-6739, USA. Electronic address: carterjosephboyd@gmail.com.

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

4-1-2022

Journal

Journal of plastic, reconstructive & aesthetic surgery : JPRAS

Volume

75

Issue

4

DOI

10.1016/j.bjps.2021.11.100

Keywords

Backlog; COVID-19; Elective surgery; Operative volume; Plastic and reconstructive surgery; TriNetX

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: This study aims to define the impact of the novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the volume of common plastic and reconstructive procedures in the United States. METHODS: TrinetX is a national, federated database that was utilized in surveying plastic and reconstructive procedural volumes among 53 Healthcare organizations (HCO) between March 2018 and May 2021. This timeframe was divided into pre-pandemic (March 2018 to February 2020) and pandemic periods (March 2020 to May 2021). Each period was then sub-divided into four seasons of the year and the mean monthly procedural volume per HCO was compared. A student's t-tests comparing pre-pandemic and pandemic seasonal mean procedural volumes were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: A total of 366,032 patient encounters among 53 HCO were included. The average seasonal volume per HCO of all procedures reduced from 872.11 procedures during pre-pandemic seasons to 827.36 during pandemic seasons. Spring 2020 vol declined for most procedures as 15 of 24 (63%) assessed procedure categories experienced statistically significant decreases. Spring 2021 experienced rebounds with 15 of 24 (63%) assessed procedures showing statistically significant increases. CONCLUSION: During the pandemic period, the average procedural volume per HCO of 14 procedure categories was significantly less than the pre-pandemic average procedural volume. Overall, an inverse relationship was observed between novel COVID-19 cases and plastic and reconstructive surgery procedure volumes in the United States.

APA Citation

Mehrabian, Daniel; Liu, Ivan Z.; Pakhchanian, Haig H.; Tarawneh, Omar H.; Raiker, Rahul; and Boyd, Carter J., "Nationwide analysis of plastic and reconstructive procedural volume in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic" (2022). GW Authored Works. Paper 876.
https://hsrc.himmelfarb.gwu.edu/gwhpubs/876

Department

School of Medicine and Health Sciences Student Works