Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34729362›Full record

ReviewInterdisciplinary neurosurgery : Advanced techniques and case management2022

Impact of COVID-19 on neurosurgical service: A one-year experience from a provincial countryside hospital in a rural area in north Egypt.

Mohammed A Azab, Ahmed Y Azzam, Ahmed E Salem

Open access · goldAbstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Interdisciplinary neurosurgery : Advanced techniques and case management, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact, top 81% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 0 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Mohammed A AzabDepartment of Neurosurgery, Cairo University Faculty of Medicine, Cairo, Egypt.
Ahmed Y AzzamOctober 6 University Faculty of Medicine, Giza, Egypt.
Ahmed E SalemThe Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Cairo University · EGJohns Hopkins Hospital · USOctober 6 University · EG

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundGlobally, there is a shooting pandemic that affected many healthcare systems. Healthcare facilities had to set up strategies to avoid exhaustion while facing a catastrophic health problem. Vaccines or perfect therapies were not available over a long pandemic time and also no certified immunity against that disease is guaranteed. Therefore, it is probable that healthcare systems will face it for an exceptionally long period. That already had a grave effect on the strategy of daily practice of different specialties' services at healthcare centers.

methodsWe tried simply to share a countryside hospital's expertise in managing neurosurgical cases amid a dreadful health crisis. Healthcare workers' safety and patient safety were typical priorities for neurosurgical service at Damietta Specialized Hospital. We expose the lines of management, triaging cases, the methods of handling confirmed and suspected neurosurgical patients, and strategies for discharging and following up patients. We identified hospital admission and discharge records starting from February 2020 till February 2021 to track the neurosurgical case burden, the state of service offered and the rate of infection among healthcare workers who participated in surgeries.

resultsAt the peak time of the COVID‑19 pandemic in Egypt starting from February 2020 till February 2021, we have admitted about 500 neurosurgical patients. About 400 (80%) of them did surgeries according to the triaging protocol of the hospital. About 150 (30%) of those who did surgeries were urgent and the rest were borderline or semi‑urgent. About 20 (4%) were tested COVID-19 positive and six of them died due to acute respiratory distress syndrome. Only two mortality cases were reported due to post-operative complications and not related to SARS‑CoV‑2 infection. The rest of the cases (97.6%) were discharged for follow‑up without complications. No neurosurgeons but three anesthesia staff were infected with SARS‑CoV‑2. A successful undisturbed neurosurgical care was available for patients during COVID-19 time.

conclusionsFollowing the suggested strategies, a rural area-serving hospital managed to provide uninterrupted neurosurgical care amid COVID-19 pandemic in Egypt. Rural areas in developing countries are in need of strategies to deal with pandemics in the future without dismantling the normal health system, especially for life‑saving cases in a critical specialty as neurosurgery.

Indexed as

COVID‑19Healthcare workerNeurosurgeryPandemic

Identifiers

PMID34729362
PMCPMC8553372
OpenAlexW3210034732

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.