Dataset Information

Neurosurgical Practice During the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Pandemic: A Worldwide Survey.

ABSTRACT:

Background and objective

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has consistently changed medical practice throughout specialties, regardless of their contribution in facing the disease itself. We surveyed neurosurgeons worldwide to investigate the situation they are experiencing.

Methods

A 17-question, web-based survey was administered to neurosurgeons worldwide through the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies and the Neurosurgery Cocktail from March 28 to April 5, 2020, by web link or e-mail invitation. Questions were divided into 3 subgroups: general information, health system organization, and institutional plans for the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak. Collected data were initially elaborated using SurveyMonkey software. Country-specific data were extracted from the World Health Organization website. Statistical analysis was performed using R, version 3.6.3.

Results

Of the 446 respondents, most were from Italy (20%), India (19%), and Pakistan (5%). Surgical activity was significantly reduced in most centers (79%) and dedicated in-hospital routes were created for patients with SARS-CoV-2 (58%). Patient screening was performed only when there were symptoms (57%) and not routinely before surgery (18%). The preferred methods included a nasopharyngeal swab and chest radiograph. Health professionals were rarely screened (20%) and sometimes, even if SARS-CoV-2 positive, were asked to work if asymptomatic (26%). Surgical planning was changed in most institutions (92%), whereas indications were modified for nonurgent procedures (59%) and remained unchanged for subarachnoid hemorrhages (85%).

Conclusions

Most neurosurgeons worldwide reported work reorganization and practices that respond to current international guidelines. Differences in practice might be related to the perception of the pandemic and significant differences in the health systems. Sharing data and experiences will be of paramount importance to address the present moment and challenges in the near future.

SUBMITTER: Fontanella MM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7198421 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Neurosurgical Practice During the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Pandemic: A Worldwide Survey.

Fontanella Marco M MM De Maria Lucio L Zanin Luca L Saraceno Giorgio G Terzi di Bergamo Lodovico L Servadei Franco F Chaurasia Bipin B Olivi Alessandro A Vajkoczy Peter P Schaller Karl K Cappabianca Paolo P Doglietto Francesco F

World neurosurgery 20200505

<h4>Background and objective</h4>The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has consistently changed medical practice throughout specialties, regardless of their contribution in facing the disease itself. We surveyed neurosurgeons worldwide to investigate the situation they are experiencing.<h4>Methods</h4>A 17-question, web-based survey was administered to neurosurgeons worldwide through the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies and the Neurosurgery Cocktail ...[more]

PMID: 32380337

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Project description:Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), the cause of coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), has been rapidly spreading since December 2019, and within a few months, it turned out to be a global pandemic. The disease affects primarily the lungs, but its pathogenesis spreads to other organs as well. However, its mortality rates vary, and in the majority of infected people, there are no serious consequences. Many factors including advanced age, preexisting health conditions, and genetic predispositions are believed to exacerbate outcomes of COVID-19. The virus contains several structural proteins including the spike (S) protein with subunits for binding, fusion, and internalization into host cells following interaction with host cell receptors and proteases (ACE2 and TMPRSS2, respectively) to cause the subsequent pathology. Although the pandemic has spread into all countries, most of Africa is thought of as having relatively less prevalence and mortality. Several hypotheses have been forwarded as reasons for this and include warmer weather conditions, vaccination with BCG (i.e., trained immunity), and previous malaria infection. From genetics or metabolic points of view, it has been proposed that most African populations could be protected to some degree because they lack some genetic susceptibility risk factors or have low-level expression of allelic variants, such as ACE2 and TMPRSS2 that are thought to be involved in increased infection risk or disease severity. The frequency of occurrence of α-1 antitrypsin (an inhibitor of a tissue-degrading protease, thereby protecting target host tissues including the lung) deficiency is also reported to be low in most African populations. More recently, infections in Africa appear to be on the rise. In general, there are few studies on the epidemiology and pathogenesis of the disease in African contexts, and the overall costs and human life losses due to the pandemic in Africa will be determined by all factors and conditions interacting in complex ways.

Project description:The world is experiencing one of the most severe viral outbreaks in the last few years, the pandemic infection by SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19 disease. As of December 10th 2021, the virus has spread worldwide, with a total number of more than 267 million of confirmed cases (four times more in the last year), and more than 5 million deaths. A great effort has been undertaken to molecularly characterize the virus, track the spreading of different variants across the globe with the aim to understand the potential effects in terms of transmission capability and different fatality rates. Here we focus on the genomic diversity and distribution of the virus in the early stages of the pandemic, to better characterize the origin of COVID-19 and to define the geographical and temporal evolution of genetic clades. By performing a comparative analysis of 75401 SARS-CoV-2 reported sequences (as of December 2020), using as reference the first viral sequence reported in Wuhan in December 2019, we described the existence of 26538 genetic variants, the most frequent clustering into four major clades characterized by a specific geographical distribution. Notably, we found the most frequent variant, the previously reported missense p.Asp614Gly in the S protein, as a single mutation in only three patients, whereas in the large majority of cases it occurs in concomitance with three other variants, suggesting a high linkage and that this variant alone might not provide a significant selective advantage to the virus. Moreover, we evaluated the presence and the distribution in our dataset of the mutations characterizing the so called "british variant", identified at the beginning of 2021, and observed that 9 out of 17 are present only in few sequences, but never in linkage with each other, suggesting a synergistic effect in this new viral strain. In summary, this is a large-scale analysis of SARS-CoV-2 deposited sequences, with a particular focus on the geographical and temporal evolution of genetic clades in the early phase of COVID-19 pandemic.

Dataset Information

Neurosurgical Practice During the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Pandemic: A Worldwide Survey.

Background and objective

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Neurosurgical Practice During the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Pandemic: A Worldwide Survey.

Similar Datasets

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