RT Journal Article
T1 Neurosurgical emergency management during the lockdown period in health care regions in Spain with different COVID-19 impact: lessons learned to improve outcomes on the future waves.
A1 Gandía-González, Maria L
A1 Viñuela-Prieto, Jose M
A1 Barrios, Laura
A1 Alarcón, Carlos
A1 Arikan, Fuat
A1 Arráez, Cinta
A1 Domínguez, Carlos J
A1 Alén, Jose F
A1 Gutiérrez-González, Raquel
A1 Horcajadas, Angel
A1 Muñoz Hernández, Fernando
A1 Narváez, Alejandra
A1 Paredes, Igor
A1 Pérez-Alfayate, Rebeca
A1 Rodríguez de Lope, Angel
A1 Ruiz-Juretschke, Fernando
A1 Salge Arrieta, Freddy J
A1 Tejada, Sonia
A1 Tamarit, Martin
A1 Topczewski, Thomaz
A1 Lafuente, Jesus
K1 COVID-19
K1 Collateral damages
K1 Emergency
K1 Lockdown
K1 Neurosurgery
K1 Pandemic
AB COVID-19 has overloaded health care systems, testing the capacity and response in every European region. Concerns were raised regarding the impact of resources' reorganization on certain emergency pathology management. The aim of the present study was to assess the impact of the outbreak (in terms of reduction of neurosurgical emergencies) during lockdown in different regions of Spain. We analyzed the impact of the outbreak in four different affected regions by descriptive statistics and univariate comparison with same period of two previous years. These regions differed in their incidence level (high/low) and in the time of excess mortality with respect to lockdown declaration. That allowed us to analyze their influence on the characteristics of neurosurgical emergencies registered for every region. 1185 patients from 18 neurosurgical centers were included. Neurosurgical emergencies that underwent surgery dropped 24.41% and 28.15% in 2020 when compared with 2019 and 2018, respectively. A higher reduction was reported for the most affected regions by COVID-19. Non-traumatic spine experienced the most significant decrease in number of cases. Life-threatening conditions did not suffer a reduction in any health care region. COVID-19 affected dramatically the neurosurgical emergency management. The most significant reduction in neurosurgical emergencies occurred on those regions that were hit unexpectedly by the pandemic, as resources were focused on fighting the virus. As a consequence, life-threating and non-life-threatening conditions' mortality raised. Results in regions who had time to prepare for the hit were congruent with an organized and sensible neurosurgical decision-making.
YR 2021
FD 2021-08-16
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10668/18384
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10668/18384
LA en
DS RISalud
RD Apr 6, 2025