Abstract
PurposeThe outbreak of COVID-19 erupted in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. In a few weeks, it progressed rapidly into a global pandemic which resulted in an overwhelming burden on health care systems, medical resources and staff. Spine surgeons as health care providers are no exception. In this study, we try to highlight the impact of the crisis on spine surgeons in terms of knowledge, attitude, practice and socioeconomic burden. MethodsThis was global, multicentric cross-sectional study on 781 spine surgeons that utilized an Internet-based validated questionnaire to evaluate knowledge about COVID-19, availability of personal protective equipment, future perceptions, effect of this crisis on practice and psychological distress. Univariate and multivariate ordinal logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate the predictors for the degree of COVID-19 effect on practice. ResultsOverall, 20.2%, 52% and 27.8% of the participants were affected minimally, intermediately and hugely by COVID-19, respectively. Older ages (β = 0.33, 95% CI 0.11–0.56), orthopedic spine surgeons (β = 0.30, 95% CI 0.01–0.61) and those who work in the private sector (β = 0.05, 95% CI 0.19–0.61) were the most affected by COVID-19. Those who work in university hospitals (β = − 0.36, 95% CI 0.00 to − 0.71) were affected the least. The availability of N95 masks (47%) and disposable eye protectors or face shields (39.4%) was significantly associated with lower psychological stress (p = 0.01). Only 6.9%, 3.7% and 5% had mild, moderate and severe mental distress, respectively. ConclusionWhile it is important to recognize the short-term impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the practice of spine surgery, predicting where we will be standing in 6–12 months remains difficult and unknown. The COVID-19 crisis will probably have an unexpected long-term impact on lives and economies.
Highlights
On December 2019, an outbreak of severe lower respiratory tract infection of unknown etiology was identified in Wuhan City, China [1, 2]
Most of the samples were from Middle East and Northern Africa (49%), orthopedic spine surgeons (59.1%), working in the private sector (55%) and having more than 15 years of experience (32.1%)
The results showed that older ages (β = 0.33, 95% CI 0.11–0.56) and being orthopedic spine
Summary
On December 2019, an outbreak of severe lower respiratory tract infection of unknown etiology was identified in Wuhan City, China [1, 2]. The causative agent of the outbreak was found to be a betacoronavirus that was given the name of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV2) [3]. It causes a syndrome called coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has the symptomatology of fever, fatigue cough, dyspnea and sore throat [4, 5]. Many countries applied home quarantine, entry bans or other restrictions for their citizens and recent travelers [11]
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