ArticlePlastic and reconstructive surgery2019
Impact of Economic Downturn on the Surgical Volumes of Common Hand Procedures.
Article in Plastic and reconstructive surgery, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Effect of County-Level Food Insecurity on Baseline Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in Patients Undergoing Carpal Tunnel Release.Journal of hand surgery global online · 2026Article
- Economic Predictors of Plastic Surgery Expenditures: A 14-Year Analysis of Unemployment, Disposable Income, and Stock Indices.Aesthetic surgery journal. Open forum · 2025Article
- Plastic Surgery Training: Trends in Hand Surgery Fellowship in the Setting of a Pandemic.Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open · 2023Article
- Humanitarian Needs: The Arthroplasty Community and the COVID-19 Pandemic.The Journal of arthroplasty · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEconomic conditions affect surgical volumes, particularly for elective procedures. In this study, the authors aimed to identify the effects of the 2008 U.S. economic downturn on hand surgery volumes to guide surgeons and managers when facing future economic crises.
methodsThe authors used the California State Ambulatory Surgery and Services Database from January of 2005 to December of 2011, which includes the entire period of the Great Recession (December of 2007 to June of 2009). The authors abstracted the monthly volume of five common hand procedures using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, and Current Procedural Terminology codes. Pearson statistics were used to identify the correlation between unemployment rate and surgical volume for each procedure.
resultsThe total number of operative cases was 345,583 during the 7-year study period. Most common elective hand procedures, such as carpal tunnel release and trigger finger release, had a negative correlation with unemployment rate, but the volume of distal radius fracture surgery did not show any correlation. Compared with carpal tunnel release (r = -0.88) or trigger finger release volumes (r = -0.85), thumb arthroplasty/arthrodesis volumes (r = -0.45) showed only a moderate correlation.
conclusionsThe economic downturn decreased elective hand procedure surgical volumes. This may be detrimental to small surgical practices that rely on revenue from elective procedures. Taking advantage of the principle that increased volume reduces unit cost may mitigate the lost revenue from these elective procedures. In addition, consolidating hand surgery services at larger, regional centers may reduce the effect of the economic environment on individual hand surgeons.
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