key: cord-260033-9cv4eqp8
authors: Al Barbarawi, Mohammed M.; Jbarah, Omar F.; Alomari, Amer A.
title: The impact of COVID-19 on the neurosurgery practice in the North of Jordan
date: 2020-06-04
journal: Interdiscip Neurosurg
DOI: 10.1016/j.inat.2020.100793
sha: 
doc_id: 260033
cord_uid: 9cv4eqp8

nan

The impact of COVID-19 on the neurosurgery practice in the North of Jordan.

Authors: Mohammed During COVID-19 pandemic the emergency cases in neurosurgery have been accepted, a minimal count of residents recruited including: two residents per one-shift with two on-call specialists ,instead of three to four residents per one-shift and one specialist on-call as each shift is a 24 hours.

Emergency cases must call the civil defense in order to reach our center by dialing 911, this is the only way to access our hospital during the lockdown, because the civil defense are the main responsible for the ambulance team in our country, an estimation for the patient situation is done by civil defense paramedics during ambulation then a reevaluation is done in ER by our on-call team.

The following situations have been considered as neurological emergencies: traumatic brain injury (moderate to severe traumatic brain injuries ,traumatic brain injury associated with other injuries , extreme age groups ), spine trauma (unstable fractures , neurological or sphincter deficits) intracranial bleedings (any type of bleeding was admitted), congenital anomalies(newborns with congenital myelomeningocele), hydrocephalus(shunt malfunction), and infections (brain abscess ,spondylodiscitis ,shunt infection and post operation wound infection) while traumatic brain injury such as concussion , admission depending on many factors like age and other associated injuries, also superficial post operation wound infection was treated with oral antibiotics with regular follow up in the Emergency department .

Fifty-five patients were admitted to our neurosurgery department through the ER as well as we were consulted on forty-six patients which referred from other medical specialties like oncology, internal medicine, neurology and pediatrics ,in total fifty-two patients out of ninety-nine patients underwent neurosurgical operations during the period from March 15th, 2020 till May 4th,2020, as Table I demonstrates. three of our patients have underwent COVID-19 screening tests after suspicion of increased fever more than 37.7 o with negative full septic workup, however they tested negative. our hospital criteria for screening is any person had a contact with a COVID-19 patient or with a person who came from other country after lockdown or fever more than 37.7 o or cough.

The Neurosurgery department at King Abdullah University Hospital committed to maintain our patient's health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We hope that COVID-19 outbreak will stop soon in our country Jordan and the whole world, in order to reach our patients again. We would like to thank our colleagues from the infection control unit for their major efforts in fighting COVID-19. 

The reproductive number of COVID-19 is higher compared to SARS coronavirus

Feasibility of controlling COVID-19 outbreaks by isolation of cases and contacts. The lancet global health

Writing -Review & Editing, Supervision

Jbarah: Conceptualization, Data Curation, Writing -Original Draft

Alomari: Resources, Writing -Review & Editing

No conflict of interest to declare Funding No funding received