Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had a great impact over all elective neurosurgical activity and important implications in management of neurosurgical urgencies. During the pandemic, some pediatric hospitals reported their experiences. After the emergency phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, the health care system needs to be reorganized to again manage all nonurgent activities, while ensuring safety of both patients and health care workers.
Methods
We developed preventive measures to limit any possibility of COVID-19 spread, according to the principles of epidemiologic prevention and suggestions from recent literature. To evaluate the efficacy of these measures, we retrospectively reviewed the neurosurgical activity at our institution from May 4 to July 15, 2020.
Results
One hundred nineteen patients were admitted to the neurosurgical ward, and 80 surgical procedures were performed. Furthermore, 130 outpatient clinics were scheduled. A total of 258 nasopharyngeal swabs and 249 specific interviews were performed. In our series, no cases of positivity for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 infection were found, and no surgical cases were postponed.
Discussion
We present the management of the neurosurgical activity after the emergency phase at the Neurosurgical Department of Giannina Gaslini Children's Hospital in Genoa, Italy.
Conclusions
The Italian health care system is undertaking a process of reorganization of resources, in an attempt to restore all nonurgent activities while ensuring safety. After the emergency phase, we are learning to live together with COVID-19 and, although epidemiologic data are encouraging, we must be prepared for an eventual second peak.
Key words
COVID-19
Neurosurgery
Pandemic
Pediatric neurosurgery
Abbreviations and Acronyms
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease-2019
HCW
Health care worker
PPE
Personal protective equipment
SARS-CoV-2
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2
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Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that the article content was composed in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.