Epidemiologic characteristics of traumatic fractures during the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China: A retrospective & comparative multi-center study

•This retrospective & comparative multi-center study reveals the epidemiological characteristics of traumatic fractures amid the epidemic changes dramatically when compared with normal days. The patients' age, fracture location, osteoporosis fracture, fracture type, severity of trauma, injury mechanism, places where fracture occurred and treatment modality during the epidemic period is very different from that during the non-epidemic period.•During the epidemic of COVID-19, the most commonly involving age group was elderly patients, and low-energy injuries (such as slips, falls) were the most prevalent injury mechanism. More attempts should be focused on the prevention of low energy injuries of elderly population.•The current study confirmed the importance and effectiveness of the implemented multi-aspect measures to restrict people's movement and wear masks in the prevention of the spread of COVID-19, which could be used as a reference for the public, health care system and health authorities during the global pandemic of COVID-19. Amid the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), effective measures have been taken in China to suggest people wearing masks and staying at home. The majority of the people stayed at home, which had an obvious impact on the occurrence of traumatic fractures. This study aimed to describe the epidemiologic characteristics of traumatic fractures during the COVID-19, and provide reference for targeted control measures for the whole world by proposing China's experiences. This was a retrospective & comparative multi-center study with data obtained from 11 hospitals in five provinces of China. Patients were enrolled into this study, who sustained fractures from 20 January to 19 February 2020 and the same period in 2019 (based on Chinese lunar calendar). All patients were divided into two groups: epidemic group (admitted in 2020) and control group (admitted in 2019). The data of patients' demographics (age and gender), injury related data (fracture type, fractured site, osteoporosis fracture, concurrent fractures, injury mechanism, places where fracture occurred, ISS score, Gustilo-Anderson Classification for open fracture), mortality and treatment modality were compared between the two groups. A total of 2,489 patients with 2,590 fractures were included. In the epidemic group, there were 865 patients, including 483 (55.8%) males and 382 (44.2%) females with an average age of 53.1 ± 23.1 years (range, 1 to 105). In the contro