Munda M, Bosnjak R, Velnar T. Problematics of neurosurgical service during the COVID-19 pandemic in Slovenia. World J Clin Cases 2022; 10(34): 12462-12469 [PMID: 36579102 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i34.12462]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Tomaz Velnar, MD, PhD, Doctor, 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
Field of Vision
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. Dec 6, 2022; 10(34): 12462-12469 Published online Dec 6, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i34.12462
Problematics of neurosurgical service during the COVID-19 pandemic in Slovenia
Matic Munda, Roman Bosnjak, Tomaz Velnar
Matic Munda, Roman Bosnjak, Tomaz Velnar, Department of Neurosurgery, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Ljubljana 1000, Slovenia
Tomaz Velnar, Alma Mater Europaea, AMEU-ECM, Maribor 2000, Slovenia
Author contributions: Munda M, Bosnjak R and Velnar T contributed equally to this work; Munda M designed the research; Velnar T and Bosnjak R analyzed the data; Munda M, Velnar T and Bosnjak R wrote the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
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, Doctor, Department of Neurosurgery, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Zaloska 7, Ljubljana 1000, Slovenia. tvelnar@hotmail.com
Received: August 27, 2022 Peer-review started: August 27, 2022 First decision: September 5, 2022 Revised: September 17, 2022 Accepted: November 7, 2022 Article in press: November 7, 2022 Published online: December 6, 2022
Abstract
The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an ongoing disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 that still poses an important and urgent threat to global health. In Slovenia, the epidemic was declared on March 12th, 2020, and since then COVID-19 has had a great impact on our health system. The field of neurosurgery in particular has been experiencing difficulties in both elective and emergency service. In this article, we described epidemiologic protocols and the effect that the COVID-19 pandemic had on the surgical practice and workflow of the Department of Neurosurgery at the University Medical Centre Ljubljana. We analyzed and compared the number of elective and emergency neurosurgical procedures in a 2-year period before and during the pandemic. We recorded a drop in cases mostly on account of elective procedures whilst emergency service remained relatively unaffected.
Core Tip: The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an ongoing disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 that poses an important and urgent threat to global health and has had a great impact on the health system in Slovenia. In this article, we described epidemiologic protocols and the effect that the COVID-19 pandemic had on the surgical practice and workflow of the Department of Neurosurgery at University Medical Centre Ljubljana.
