The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Postoperative Neurosurgical Infections at a Reference Center in México

• Main Authors: José Luis Soto Hernández (Author), Luis Esteban Ramírez González (Author), Guadalupe Reyes Ramírez (Author), Carolina Hernández Hernández (Author), Natalia Rangel Torreblanca (Author), Verónica Ángeles Morales (Author), Karen Flores Moreno (Author), Miguel Ramos Peek (Author), Sergio Moreno Jiménez (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: MDPI AG, 2023-06-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.

Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major global impact on the treatment of hospitalized surgical patients. Our study retrospectively evaluates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic at a neurosurgical reference center in Mexico City. We compared the number of neurosurgeries, the rate and type of postoperative infections, the causative microorganisms and in-hospital mortality rates in a 4-year period, from the pre-pandemic year 2019 until 2022. A total of 4150 neurosurgical procedures were registered. In 2020 the total number of surgeries was reduced by 36% compared to 2019 OR = 0.689 (95% CI 0.566-0.834) <i>p ≤</i> 0.001, transnasal/trans sphenoidal pituitary resections decreased by 53%, and spinal surgeries by 52%. The rate of neurosurgical infections increased from 3.5% in 2019 to 5.6% in 2020 (<i>p</i> = 0.002). Regarding the microorganisms that caused infections, gram positive cocci accounted for 43.5% of isolates, <i>Klebsiella</i> spp. and <i>Pseudomonas</i> spp. caused one third of the infections. No significant differences were found for in-hospital mortality nor patterns of resistance to antibiotics. The number of surgeries increased in the last two years, although the infection rate has returned to pre-pandemic levels. We observed a lower impact from subsequent waves of COVID-19 and despite an increase in the number of surgeries, the surgeries have not amounted to the full pre-pandemic levels.

Item Description

10.3390/antibiotics12061055
2079-6382