Velnar T, Bosnjak R. Management of neurosurgical patients during coronavirus disease 2019 pandemics: The Ljubljana, Slovenia experience. World J Clin Cases 2022; 10(15): 4726-4736 [PMID: 35801036 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i15.4726]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Tomaz Velnar, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Neurosurgery, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Zaloska 7, Ljubljana 1000, Slovenia. tvelnar@hotmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Neurosciences
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which 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: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. May 26, 2022; 10(15): 4726-4736 Published online May 26, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i15.4726
Management of neurosurgical patients during coronavirus disease 2019 pandemics: The Ljubljana, Slovenia experience
Tomaz Velnar, Roman Bosnjak
Tomaz Velnar, Roman Bosnjak, Department of Neurosurgery, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Ljubljana 1000, Slovenia
Author contributions: Velnar T and Bosnjak R contributed equally to this work; Velnar T designed the research; Bosnjak R analyzed the data; Velnar T and Bosnjak R wrote the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflicts of interest to disclose.
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 NonCommercial (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: Tomaz Velnar, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Neurosurgery, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Zaloska 7, Ljubljana 1000, Slovenia. tvelnar@hotmail.com
Received: December 3, 2021 Peer-review started: December 3, 2021 First decision: January 22, 2022 Revised: February 12, 2022 Accepted: March 27, 2022 Article in press: March 27, 2022 Published online: May 26, 2022 Processing time: 172 Days and 6 Hours
Abstract
The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging disease, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2. It bears unique biological characteristics, clinical symptoms and imaging manifestations, therefore presenting an important and urgent threat to global health. As a result, a new public health crisis arose, threatening the world with the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus. Despite the maximal worldwide public health responses aimed at containing the disease and delaying its spread, many countries have been confronted with a critical care crisis, and even more, countries will almost certainly follow. In Slovenia, the COVID-19 has struck the health system immensely and among all the specialities, neurosurgery has also been experiencing difficulties in the service, not only in regular, elective surgeries but especially during emergencies. The management of these neurosurgical patients has become more difficult than ever. We describe our protocol in the management of neurosurgical patients in the University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia and how neurosurgical pathology was tackled during the pandemics.
Core Tip: The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become an important and urgent threat to global health. In Slovenia, the COVID-19 has struck the health system immensely and among all the specialities, neurosurgery has also been experiencing difficulties in the service, not only in regular, elective surgeries but especially during emergencies. In the article, we describe our protocol in the management of neurosurgical patients in the University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia.
