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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · J Neuroanaesth Crit Care 2020; 7(03): 118-127
DOI: 10.1055/s-0040-1714186
Review Article

Indian Society of Neuroanaesthesiology and Critical Care (ISNACC) Position Statement and Advisory for the Practice of Neuroanesthesia during COVID-19 Pandemic

Endorsed by Indian Society of Anaesthesiologists (ISA)
Kiran Jangra 
1   Division of Neuroanaesthesia, Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India
,
Nitin Manohar
2   Department of Neuroanaesthesia and Neurocritical Care, Yashoda Hospitals, Secunderabad, Telangana, India
,
Prasanna U. Bidkar
3   Division of Neuroanesthesiology, Department of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry, India
,
Ponniah Vanamoorthy
4   Department of Neuroanesthesiology and Neurocritical Care, MGM Health Care Pvt Ltd, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
,
Devendra Gupta
5   Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
,
Girija P. Rath 
6   Department of Neuroanaesthesiology and Critical Care, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India
,
Joseph Monteiro
7   Department of Anaesthesiology, P D Hinduja Hospital and Medical Research Center, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
,
Nidhi Panda
1   Division of Neuroanaesthesia, Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India
,
Kamath Sriganesh
8   Department of Neuroanaesthesiology and Neurocritical Care, National Institute of Mental Health Neurosciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
,
Ajay P. Hrishi
9   Division of Neuroanesthesiology, Department of Anesthesiology, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvanathapuram, India
,
Bhibukalyani Das
10   Department of Neuroanaesthesia, Institute of Neurosciences, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
,
Rahul Yadav
11   Department of Anaesthesia, INHS Asvini, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
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Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a major health emergency in today’s time. In December 2019, a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China was attributed to a novel coronavirus. The World Health Organization declared it as a pandemic. As the majority of the cases suffering from COVID-19 are mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic, it becomes a great challenge to identify the infected persons in the absence of extensive testing. In the hospital environment, it can infect several other vulnerable patients and healthcare providers, significantly impacting the hospital services. Anesthesiologists are at an increased risk of COVID-19 transmission from the patients, as they are frequently involved in several aerosol-generating procedures. It is not possible to identify asymptomatic COVID-19 patients solely based on history-taking during their first point of contact with the anesthesiologists at the preanesthetic checkup clinic.

Most of the neurosurgical conditions are of urgent in nature and cannot be postponed for a longer duration. In view of this, the position statement and practice advisory from the Indian Society of Neuroanaesthesiology and Critical Care (ISNACC) provides guidance to the practice of neuroanesthesia in the present scenario. The advisory has been prepared considering the current disease status of the COVID-19 pandemic, available literature, and consensus from experts in the field of neuroanesthesiology. Since the pandemic is still progressing and the nature of the disease is dynamic, readers are advised to constantly look for updated literature from ISNACC and other neurology and neurosurgical societies.

Keywords

COVID-19 pandemic - neuroanesthesia practice - emergency neurosurgery - neurointervention


Publication History

Article published online:
06 July 2020

© 2020. Indian Society of Neuroanaesthesiology and Critical Care. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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