Publication:

A cross-sectional study of diseases prevailing in an orthopaedic OPD at a tertiary care hospital in the Mumbai metropolitan region

Background The orthopaedic out-patient department of a tertiary care hospital plays a crucial role in the health care system as it attends to a large number of patients. The goal of the study is to observe the etiological patterns of common issues that prevail in an Orthopaedics OPD of a hectic tertiary care hospital, which could in turn help to understand the distribution of illnesses in a particular geographical area.

Methods Analysis of 1605 patient records was carried out from the period July 2020 to December 2020, to assess the orthopaedic out-patient load and prevailing diseases. Initial medical records of the patients were analyzed and the data collected were subjected to statistical analysis using IBM SPSS software version 1.0.

Results The primary diagnosis of patients visiting the orthopaedic OPD during the Covid-19 period are observed to be as follows: acute and chronic back ache (27.29%), arthritis (26.23%), joint stiffness (10.03%), ligamentous sprains (9.84%), neck-related problem (6.92), tendinopathies and enthesopathies (6.60%), non-specific body aches (5.11%), post-operative follow-up (4.05%),bone fractures (2.37%), soft tissue injuries (0.93%), and neuropathies (0.62%).

Conclusions The study presenting the overview of diseases prevailing in an orthopaedic OPD in a tertiary care center could help in formulating better prevention and treatment strategies to overcome such medical conditions irrespective of the presence of a pandemic.