Restaurant restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic reduced emergency surgeries related to alcohol consumption

Background  During the Covid-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2022, there were restrictions on restaurant activity and alcohol serving. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether these restrictions affected injuries under the influence of alcohol and the number of patients undergoing on call surgeries.

Methods   The data for the study was based on the surgical records of our hospital's orthopedic unit from 2018 to 2022. A total of 1 587 patients were included in the study. The study periods were selected based on the times when restaurant restrictions were in place: April 4, 2020 – July 12, 2020, March 9, 2021 – April 18, 2021, and January 7, 2022 – February 14, 2022. The control periods used were seasonally matched periods from the pre-Covid years 2018–2019.

Results   During the periods of restaurant restrictions, the proportion of on call trauma surgeries related to alcohol injuries was 4.3 percentage points lower (p = 0.016) compared to the control periods. In an annual comparison, during the spring 2022 restrictions, such surgeries were performed 10.6 percentage points less (p = 0.0075) compared to spring 2018 and 2019.

Conclusions   During the Covid-19 restrictions, fewer on call surgeries were performed for fractures sustained under the influence of alcohol. The study results suggest that restricting alcohol serving may reduce the incidence of injuries requiring surgery.