Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the management of glioma patients around the world. An evidence-based review

Abstract

Background The coronavirus pandemic has affected many health care services worldwide since the emergence of the first case in Wuhan. Surgical neuro-oncology care is a fundamental part of hospital services, making it susceptible to strategic changes amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods An electronic search on several databases (PubMed/Medline, Scopus, and Google Scholar) from the beginning of the pandemic to the end of 2020, each paper was reviewed independently. The publication inclusion and exclusion criteria were done using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. Results Eight studies were found to be eligible for our meta-analysis. Most of the studies were on a retrospective basis, except one which was retrospective and prospective. An overall of 951 glioma patients’ were included for surgical admission from the beginning of the pandemic until 2020. Seventy-four patients' had mortality outcomes, and 250 patients had complications for both surgical admitted and non-surgical admitted purposes. Conclusions To our knowledge, we made the first systematic review and meta-analysis regarding the management of glioma patients’ during the pandemic of COVID-19. Our main findings are that the number of surgical admissions for glioma patients’ did not significantly differ between COVID-19 negative and COVD-19 positive cases; however, surprisingly, we found that both overall complications and mortality outcomes were more significant COVID-19 negative patients’ from the reported studies.

An umbrella review of systematic reviews on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer prevention and management, and patient needs

“…There were 15 reviews assessing modification of treatment ( Nikolopoulos et al, 2022 ; Gascon et al, 2022 ; Hojaij et al, 2020 ; Adham et al, 2022 ; Alom et al, 2021 ; Garg et al, 2020 ; Moujaess et al, 2020 ; Sun et al, 2021 ; Di Cosimo et al, 2022 ; Hesary and Salehiniya, 2022 ; Mazidimoradi et al, 2021 ; Crosby and Sharma, 2020 ; Azab and Azzam, 2021 ; Pascual et al, 2022 ; Piras et al, 2022 ). Main findings for each individual review are outlined in Supplementary file 1c and Table 4 .…”

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of brain tumor surgeries in Poland: A national database study

“…5,6 Interestingly, Azab and Azzam reported that the rate of hospital admissions for patients with glioma who tested positive or negative for COVID-19 was similar, but the rate of complications among negative patients was higher. 23 Observations of the Polish database over time may answer the question of whether the decrease in trends is just a temporary situation or a long-term effect.…”

Impact on neurosurgical management in a Level 1 trauma center post COVID-19 shelter-in-place restrictions

“…The decrease in Elective cranial cases may be partially related to how low grade and asymptomatic tumors were deferred care. [8] , [9] , [10] Pessina et al documented their experiences at a cancer referral center and described about one-third fewer cases. [11] Moreover; we propose that some of these procedures included an increased representation of temporizing measures such as ventriculoperitoneal shunt revisions; some of which may have presented electively.…”