Acta Neurochir (Wien). 2020 Mar 28 : 1–2.doi: 10.1007/s00701-020-04305-w [Epub ahead of print]PMCID: PMC7103098PMID: 32222820
Neurosurgery during the COVID-19 pandemic: update from Lombardy, northern Italy
Cesare Zoia,1Daniele Bongetta,2Pierlorenzo Veiceschi,3Marco Cenzato,4Francesco Di Meco,5Davide Locatelli,6Davide Boeris,4 and Marco M. Fontanella7Author informationArticle notesCopyright and License informationDisclaimerThis article has been cited by other articles in PMC.
Since February, 21st 2020, when the first person infected was reported in Lombardy, Italy rapidly became home to a massive Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. Currently, on 21th March, 53,578 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Italy. 6072 patients are now hospitalized. The number of deaths has risen to 4825 while 6072 were declared healed [4]. This data shows that Italy is, currently, the second most affected nation in the world by the epidemic, second only to China.
Most of these cases occurred in Lombardy, the most populated Region of Italy, accounting for 10,060,574 people [2]. Hospitals were rapidly overcrowded by COVID-19 patients, especially intensive care units, and non-specialized doctors in infectious or respiratory diseases, including Neurosurgeons, were reassigned to the new COVID-wards to rationalize the use of resources. Hence, the regional health system, has been rapidly reprogrammed trying to contain the COVID-19 [1, 3]. In particular, for this reason, on March, 8th 2020, the Lombard Regional Council organized an emergency task force in order to lead the response to the outbreak.
This viewpoint is intended to summarize the reorganization model provided inside the Lombard Neurosurgical network. Neurosurgeons and other non-specialized doctors were reassigned to the new COVID-wards. The Health system worked trying to contain COVID-19 in the region. The Lombard Regional Council called an emergency task force in order to reprogram the regional system. The Lombardy region accounts for 26 neurosurgical departments in 21 hospitals with more than 200 neurosurgeons and 40 residents in training. During the early days of the first outbreak, each neurosurgical department responded individually, and according to the number of COVID-19 positive patients present in the hospital, elective surgical activities, hospitalizations, and non-urgent outpatient visits were gradually reduced. Since March 8th 2020, the regional medical system, including neurosurgical activities, has been completely reorganized by the decision of the Lombard Regional Government (decree n° XI/2906).
read more: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7103098/
