Purpose After the appearance of first COVID-19 cases in Serbia, state of emergency was declared on 15 March 2020 and lasted for 54 days. The aim of this report is to compare orthopaedic fracture frequencies in this period, when the walk was limited at the home mostly, with those during the same part in the previous year with regular state, thus to examine staying at home as a factor influencing the frequency of different fracture types. Methods There were 86 patients during the state of emergency in year 2020 and 106 patients during the same part of year 2019 with a regular state, having orthopaedic trauma surgery. Number of fractures, gender distribution, and age of patients have been compared between these periods. Results Total number of fractures decreased for about 19% during the state of emergency. There was nonsignificant difference in fracture frequency for all skeletal areas (p > 0.05), except for distal femoral fractures which occurred more often during the state of emergency (p < 0.05). Female ratio was higher during state of emergency than in regular state for femoral neck fractures. Conclusion Restricted going outside the home for 54 days has the influence in total number of fractures and gender distribution in femoral neck fractures. The method of external fixation used could be assumed as a reducing factor of intraoperative virus pandemic propagation among medical staff.

A new concept in external skeletal fixation is presented. A 3D unilateral system developed by Mitkovic has widely been investigated biomechanically in AO institute in Davos (Switzerland). Consists of three components only providing extremely simple application and dynamic fixation of bones and different joints. This simple external fixator functions as an accurate reduction device at the same time, minimizing need for fluoroscopy. Clinically this system has been applied to mere then 13 thousand patients in 43 clinics. This paper presents the results of its application for treatment of open fractures, war wounds with fractures and for comminuted and intraarticular closed fractures in the series of 597 patients. Overall average time for union time was 3.2 months. Overall success of fracture healing was 96.8% including open and closed fractures. Our study suggests that the use of this 3D unilateral system is suitable for routine use.