Spine surgery during COVID-19

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has become the most prominent event of 2020, posing major challenges to both society and politics. Many surgical departments had to be restructured with more or less vague recommendations to be prepared for the feared onslaught of COVID-patients. This work served to capture the daily routine of spine surgery during the Corona pandemic. Patients & Methods: An online questionnaire with 32 questions about professional and personal daily life was sent to members of neurosurgical and spine surgical societies in the DACH region during the initial lockdown. Results: Daily professional life was very similar for a large proportion of respondents. Outpatient clinics were reduced to a minimum and replaced by telemedical care. Intra-departmental meetings were greatly reduced and employees were divided into „split teams“. The operative program was organized very differently in the DACH region. 92% of respondents reported that semi-acute or acute procedures had been postponed, while 6% of respondents were only able to perform emergency surgeries. Conclusion: Despite the lack of guidelines and almost daily changing policy guidance, many departments in the DACH region demonstrated very similar courses of action to contain nosocomial infections and prepare for the onslaught of COVID-patients. The lack of resources (masks, gloves, etc.) led to a further restriction of the surgical program in order to be able to continue to provide the basic equipment for effective work of medical staff. In light of future medical crises, this problem should be addressed in the future and consequently better organized.