Charlottesville, VA (December 1, 2020). The December issue of Neurosurgical Focus (Vol. 49, No. 6 [https://thejns.org/focus/view/journals/neurosurg-focus/49/6/neurosurg-focus.49.issue-6.xml]) examines preparedness and guidelines for neurosurgical practice during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Topic Editors: Franco Servadei, Miguel A. Arráez, Jincao Chen, John G. Golfinos, and Mahmood M. Qureshi
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on medical practice throughout this year. This holds true even for medical specialties that seem, at first glance, to be unrelated to the pandemic. One such specialty is neurosurgery, which has initiated and adapted to changes in how patients are treated, students and residents are trained, and scientific meetings are held.
This month’s issue addresses the following topics as they relate to neurosurgery and neurosurgical personnel in the midst of the pandemic: “1) the production of guidelines related to the protection of healthcare workers and patients and how best to continue our activities; 2) lessons learned from the experience of centers that were most affected; 3) how to deal with specific pathologies, such as brain tumors as well as the most risk-prone endonasal approaches to the skull base; 4) reorganization of outpatient clinics via telemedicine; and 5) innovative ways to keep neurosurgical training ongoing through webinars and virtual education.”
In addition to the topic editors’ introduction, there are 18 articles from four continents:
- “Introduction. COVID-19 and neurosurgery” by Franco Servadei et al.
- “Pediatric neurosurgery during the COVID-19 pandemic: update and recommendations from the Brazilian Society of Pediatric Neurosurgery” by Matheus Fernando Manzolli Ballestero et al.
- “Preparedness and guidelines for neurosurgery in the COVID-19 era: Indian perspective from a tertiary care referral hospital” by Amol Raheja et al.
- “Reconversion of neurosurgical practice in times of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: a narrative review of the literature and guideline implementation in a Mexican neurosurgical referral center” by Sergio Díaz-Bello et al.
- “Neurosurgery at the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia: experience from a Surabaya academic tertiary hospital” by Wihasto Suryaningtyas et al.
- “Neurosurgeons on the front line: experience from the center of the storm in Italy” by Claudio Bernucci et al.
- “COVID-19: changing patterns among neurosurgical patients from North India, efficacy of repeat testing, and inpatient prevalence” by Sushanta K. Sahoo et al.
- “The adjustment of neurosurgical procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic: a case study at Dr. Sardjito General Hospital as a part of an academic health system” by Handoyo Pramusinto et al.
- “Neurosurgery in times of a pandemic: a survey of neurosurgical services during the COVID-19 outbreak in the Veneto region in Italy” by Fabio Raneri et al.
- “Treatment of patients with glioma during the COVID-19 pandemic: what we learned and what we take home for the future” by Federico Pessina et al.
- “Deep brain stimulation telemedicine programming during the COVID-19 pandemic: treatment of patients with psychiatric disorders” by Zhengyu Lin, et al.
- “Early practices in endonasal skull base surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic: a global survey” by Pierre-Olivier Champagne et al.
- “Ambulatory neurosurgery in the COVID-19 era: patient and provider satisfaction with telemedicine” by Alina Mohanty et al.
- “Recapitulating the Bayesian framework for neurosurgical outpatient care and a cost-benefit analysis of telemedicine for socioeconomically disadvantaged patients in the Philippines during the pandemic” by Kevin Paul Ferraris et al.
- “Reduced field of view under the surgical microscope due to personal protective equipment: lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic” by Emrah Celtikci et al.
- “Neurosurgery training in India during the COVID-19 pandemic: straight from the horse’s mouth” by Chinmaya Dash et al.
- “Virtual education in neurosurgery during the COVID-19 pandemic” by Tyler Lazaro et al.
- “Virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: a turning point in neurosurgical education” by Nasser M. F. El-Ghandour et al.
- “Anxiety in neurosurgical patients undergoing nonurgent surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic” by Francesco Doglietto et al.
Please join us in reading the December issue of Neurosurgical Focus.
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For additional information, please contact Ms. Jo Ann M. Eliason, Communications Manager, Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group, One Morton Drive, Suite 200, Charlottesville, VA 22903; Email: joanneliason@thejns.org Phone 434-982-1209.
Neurosurgical Focus, an online-only, monthly, peer-reviewed journal, covers a different neurosurgery-related topic in depth each month and is available free to all readers at http://www.thejns.org. Enhanced by color images and video clips, each issue constitutes a state-of-the-art “textbook chapter” in the field of neurosurgery. Neurosurgical Focus is one of five journals published by the JNS Publishing Group, the scholarly journal division of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Other peer-reviewed journals published by the JNS Publishing Group each month include the Journal of Neurosurgery, the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics, and Neurosurgical Focus: Video. All five journals can be accessed at www.thejns.org.
Founded in 1931 as the Harvey Cushing Society, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) is a scientific and educational association with more than 10,000 members worldwide. The AANS is dedicated to advancing the specialty of neurological surgery in order to provide the highest quality of neurosurgical care to the public. All active members of the AANS are certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (Neurosurgery) of Canada, or the Mexican Council of Neurological Surgery, AC. Neurological surgery is the medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of disorders that affect the entire nervous system including the brain, spinal column, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves. For more information, visit www.AANS.org.
