Systematic Reviews
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World J Orthop. Feb 18, 2022; 13(2): 193-200
Published online Feb 18, 2022. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v13.i2.193
COVID-19 pandemic: An update on the reaction attitude of the spine societies and their members worldwide
Alessandro Ramieri, Omar Alshafeei, Sokol Trungu, Antonino Raco, Giuseppe Costanzo, Massimo Miscusi
Alessandro Ramieri, Omar Alshafeei, Giuseppe Costanzo, SAIMLAL, Sapienza University, Rome 00100, Italy
Sokol Trungu, Antonino Raco, Massimo Miscusi, NESMOS, Sapienza University, Rome 00100, Italy
Author contributions: Ramieri A and Miscusi M designed the research; Alshafeei O and Trungu S performed the research; Ramieri A and Alshafeei O analyzed the data; Alshafeei O and Ramieri A wrote the paper; Costanzo G and Raco A supervised the paper; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Alessandro Ramieri, Omar Alshafeei, Massimo Miscusi, Trungu Sokol, Antonino Raco, and Giuseppe Costanzo have nothing to disclose.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Alessandro Ramieri, MD, PhD, Professor, Research Fellow, Surgeon, SAIMLAL, Sapienza University, Aldo Moro 5, Rome 00100, Italy. alexramieri@libero.it
Received: March 18, 2021
Peer-review started: March 18, 2021
First decision: July 18, 2021
Revised: August 1, 2021
Accepted: January 17, 2022
Article in press: January 17, 2022
Published online: February 18, 2022
Processing time: 336 Days and 18.3 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

All surgical specialties have been influenced by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and substantial changes have been determined in medical assistance, especially in elective surgery. Several spine societies have published recommendations to provide optimal care during this unique situation.

AIM

To discuss the recommendations by many spine societies for the management of spinal diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

The present study was performed according to the PRISMA guidelines. A review of the MEDLINE database (PubMed – National Library of Medicine), Google, and Google Scholar was performed from March 2020 to date for articles published in the English Language.

RESULTS

Spine associations and societies worldwide were divided into three groups: Continental, specialty and country-based societies. A total of 27 spine associations were included in this review. There were eight major continental associations, but only one-third of these had published guidelines and recommendations on this topic. On the other hand, the specialty-based societies have not addressed the topic, except in two cases.

CONCLUSION

The national spine societies showed the deepest concern on this topic with several publications in scientific journals influenced by the local epidemiological severity. Contrarily, continental and specialty-based societies showed less interest in this topic.

Keywords: COVID-19; Pandemic; Spine surgery; Spine society; Guidelines; Recommendations

Core Tip: We designed a review to verify the reaction of the worldwide spine societies to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Twenty-seven associations were identified. Continental and specialty-based companies showed less reaction attitude than the regional scientific societies, probably due to the local epidemiological severity of the disease.