Abstract
Objectives
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic affected health care systems all over the world. Modifications have been made, such as delaying elective cases and precaution protocols. Our study aims to demonstrate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hand surgery practice in a subspecialty clinic.
Methods
Hand surgery cases in the pandemic period of 3 months (March-May 2020) were evaluated retrospectively. Cases in the same period of 2019 were also evaluated for comparison. Classification of cases was made into four groups: 1- emergent, 2- urgent, 3- urgent-elective, and 4- elective. Precautions and operation criteria for elective cases were listed.
Results
85,4% of the cases were emergent and urgent in the pandemic period, and 76% of the cases were emergent and urgent in 2019. 92,95% of the patients were operated under regional anesthesia. Two patients had fever and respiratory symptoms. COVID-19 PCR test was performed, and both results were negative.
Conclusion
COVID-19 pandemic created a new perspective for all of us in every division of surgery. Hand surgery has some advantages among the other surgical subspecialties. Elective cases, which require a hospital stay for less than a day, in low-risk patients, may be performed with the attention of protective measures. Since the rate of emergent and urgent cases are high in hand surgery, it is hard to cancel or delay the routines completely. Modifications with attentive precautions should be performed.

Key words: COVID-19, pandemic, hand surgery