AB196. SOH21AS249. Return to play during COVID19: was Achilles a “Weekend Warrior”?
General Poster Session

AB196. SOH21AS249. Return to play during COVID19: was Achilles a “Weekend Warrior”?

Ben Murphy, Gary O’Toole, Alan Molloy, Conor Hurson, Kieran O’Shea, Paul Curtin, Robert Flavin, Adrian Cassar-Gheiti

Department of Surgery, St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland

Background: The COVID19 pandemic has affected the types of trauma being operated on by Orthopaedic surgeons. Lifting of restrictions pertaining to sports saw a sudden return to play for many people after a period of inactivity. Achilles tendon ruptures are associated with these episodic athletes. In our institution, we appeared to have a large number of these injuries within a short space of time. We hypothesised that Phase 3 of “Lockdown”, where all sports were allowed to return, led to increased Achilles tendon rupture rates vs. the same period in 2019 due to a prolonged period of inactivity.

Methods: Data from electronic theatre logbooks of all operations performed in the trauma theatre from 27th March 2020 (Lockdown begins) to 31st July 2020 and 27th March 2019 to 31st July 2019 was collected.

Results: A total of 772 cases were performed in 2019. There were 17 Achilles tendon ruptures in that period (2.2%). Fourteen of these occurred after Phase 3. A total of 555 cases were performed in 2020. There were 13 Achilles tendon ruptures in that period (2%). Eleven of these occurred after Phase 3.

Conclusions: Overall, there was a greater number and greater rate of Achilles tendon ruptures in 2019 vs. the equivalent “Lockdown” period in 2020. Eight of the 11 occurring after Phase 3 in 2020 occurred in the month of July. This led the authors to believe they were occurring more frequently. In conclusion, the COVID19 pandemic restrictions and subsequent return to play after inactivity does not increase the rate of Achilles tendon rupture.

Keywords: COVID19; pandemic; lockdown; Achilles tendon; Achilles tendon rupture

Acknowledgments

Funding: None.

Footnote

Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

doi: 10.21037/map-21-ab196
Cite this abstract as: Murphy B, O’Toole G, Molloy A, Hurson C, O’Shea K, Curtin P, Flavin R, Cassar-Gheiti A. SOH21AS249. Return to play during COVID19: was Achilles a “Weekend Warrior”? Mesentery Peritoneum 2021;5:AB196.

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