Trends in United States pediatric neurosurgical practice during the COVID-19 pandemic

Pooja Dave; Haig Pakhchanian; Omar H. Tarawneh; Syed Faraz Kazim; Steven Garay; Rahul Raiker; Ivan Z. Liu; John Vellek; Alis J. Dicpinigaitis; Kyril L. Cole; Heather Stevens Spader; James A. Botros; Meic H. Schmidt; Christian A. Bowers

doi:10.1016/j.jocn.2022.01.001

Trends in United States pediatric neurosurgical practice during the COVID-19 pandemic

Pooja Dave, Haig Pakhchanian, Omar H. Tarawneh, Syed Faraz Kazim, Steven Garay, Rahul Raiker, Ivan Z. Liu, John Vellek, Alis J. Dicpinigaitis, Kyril L. Cole, Heather Stevens Spader, James A. Botros, Meic H. Schmidt, Christian A. Bowers

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

There is minimal information on COVID-19 pandemic's national impact on pediatric neurosurgical operative volumes. In this study, using a national database, TriNetX, we compared the overall and seasonal trends of pediatric neurosurgical procedure volumes in the United States during the pandemic to pre-pandemic periods. In the United States, the incidence of COVID-19 began to rise in September 2020 and reached its maximum peak between December 2020 and January 2021. During this time, there was an inverse relationship between pediatric neurosurgical operative volumes and the incidence of COVID-19 cases. From March 2020 to May 2021, there was a significant decrease in the number of pediatric shunt (−11.7% mean change, p = 0.006), epilepsy (−16.6%, p < 0.001), and neurosurgical trauma (−13.8%, p < 0.001) surgeries compared to pre-pandemic years. The seasonal analysis also yielded a broad decrease in most subcategories in spring 2020 with significant decreases in pediatric spine, epilepsy, and trauma cases. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report a national decline in pediatric shunt, epilepsy, and neurosurgical trauma operative volumes during the pandemic. This could be due to fear-related changes in health-seeking behavior as well as underdiagnosis during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	21-24
Number of pages	4
Journal	Journal of Clinical Neuroscience
Volume	97
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocn.2022.01.001
State	Published - Mar 2022
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

COVID-19
Pediatric neurosurgery
Procedures
Trends

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Dave, P., Pakhchanian, H., Tarawneh, O. H., Kazim, S. F., Garay, S., Raiker, R., Liu, I. Z., Vellek, J., Dicpinigaitis, A. J., Cole, K. L., Spader, H. S., Botros, J. A., Schmidt, M. H., & Bowers, C. A. (2022). Trends in United States pediatric neurosurgical practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Clinical Neuroscience, 97, 21-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocn.2022.01.001

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abstract = "There is minimal information on COVID-19 pandemic's national impact on pediatric neurosurgical operative volumes. In this study, using a national database, TriNetX, we compared the overall and seasonal trends of pediatric neurosurgical procedure volumes in the United States during the pandemic to pre-pandemic periods. In the United States, the incidence of COVID-19 began to rise in September 2020 and reached its maximum peak between December 2020 and January 2021. During this time, there was an inverse relationship between pediatric neurosurgical operative volumes and the incidence of COVID-19 cases. From March 2020 to May 2021, there was a significant decrease in the number of pediatric shunt (−11.7% mean change, p = 0.006), epilepsy (−16.6%, p < 0.001), and neurosurgical trauma (−13.8%, p < 0.001) surgeries compared to pre-pandemic years. The seasonal analysis also yielded a broad decrease in most subcategories in spring 2020 with significant decreases in pediatric spine, epilepsy, and trauma cases. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report a national decline in pediatric shunt, epilepsy, and neurosurgical trauma operative volumes during the pandemic. This could be due to fear-related changes in health-seeking behavior as well as underdiagnosis during the COVID-19 pandemic.",

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author = "Pooja Dave and Haig Pakhchanian and Tarawneh, {Omar H.} and Kazim, {Syed Faraz} and Steven Garay and Rahul Raiker and Liu, {Ivan Z.} and John Vellek and Dicpinigaitis, {Alis J.} and Cole, {Kyril L.} and Spader, {Heather Stevens} and Botros, {James A.} and Schmidt, {Meic H.} and Bowers, {Christian A.}",

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doi = "10.1016/j.jocn.2022.01.001",

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AU - Tarawneh, Omar H.

AU - Kazim, Syed Faraz

AU - Garay, Steven

AU - Raiker, Rahul

AU - Liu, Ivan Z.

AU - Vellek, John

AU - Dicpinigaitis, Alis J.

AU - Cole, Kyril L.

AU - Spader, Heather Stevens

AU - Botros, James A.

AU - Schmidt, Meic H.

AU - Bowers, Christian A.

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AB - There is minimal information on COVID-19 pandemic's national impact on pediatric neurosurgical operative volumes. In this study, using a national database, TriNetX, we compared the overall and seasonal trends of pediatric neurosurgical procedure volumes in the United States during the pandemic to pre-pandemic periods. In the United States, the incidence of COVID-19 began to rise in September 2020 and reached its maximum peak between December 2020 and January 2021. During this time, there was an inverse relationship between pediatric neurosurgical operative volumes and the incidence of COVID-19 cases. From March 2020 to May 2021, there was a significant decrease in the number of pediatric shunt (−11.7% mean change, p = 0.006), epilepsy (−16.6%, p < 0.001), and neurosurgical trauma (−13.8%, p < 0.001) surgeries compared to pre-pandemic years. The seasonal analysis also yielded a broad decrease in most subcategories in spring 2020 with significant decreases in pediatric spine, epilepsy, and trauma cases. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report a national decline in pediatric shunt, epilepsy, and neurosurgical trauma operative volumes during the pandemic. This could be due to fear-related changes in health-seeking behavior as well as underdiagnosis during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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ER -

Trends in United States pediatric neurosurgical practice during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Keywords

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