Abstract
Objective:
In December 2019, a novel coronavirus infectious disease, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), began to appear in China. Wuhan, Hubei Province, is the origin and core location of the epidemic. Neurosurgeons were faced with the challenge of balancing treatment of patients with life-threatening conditions and preventing the cross-transmission of the virus.
Methods:
A series of infection prevention and control strategies was adopted for the peri-operative period of emergency surgeries in our department. These strategies include protective measures for the emergency department (ED) and measures for the peri-operative period of emergency surgery. The propensity score matching (PSM) was used to match COVID-19–related patients with patients before the epidemic. Length of wait time in the ED and duration of operation were compared.
Results:
From January 23, 2020 to March 18, 2020, we performed emergency surgery for 19 patients who were either COVID-19–related or COVID-19–suspected. None of the medical staff involved in the surgeries developed viral infection, and no peri-operative virus transmission occurred in our hospital. After the PSM, 32 patients were included in the epidemic group and the pre-epidemic group (16 patients in each group). The duration of wait time in the ED of the former group was longer than that of the latter group (z = −3.000; p = 0.003). During the epidemic, the duration of a craniotomy was longer than before the epidemic (z = −2.253; p = 0.024), and there was no difference in the duration of interventional surgery (z = −0.314; p = 0.753).
Conclusion:
We believe that our experience can provide a useful reference for other surgeons facing the same challenges and as a lesson for similar infectious diseases that may occur in the future.
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