Pituitary surgery during Covid-19: a first hand experience and evaluation

Purpose During the Covid-19 pandemic every hospital has had to change its internal organization. Different institutions have highlighted the risks connected with endoscopic endonasal surgery. The goal of this paper is to illustrate the feasibility of pituitary region surgery during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Methods After two negative Covid tests were obtained, three patients with macro GH-secreting tumors, and two patients with micro ACTH-secreting tumors resistant to medical treatment underwent surgery during the pandemic. During the surgery, every patient was treated as if they were positive. Results Neither operator, nor patient have developed Covid symptoms. The two neurosurgeons performing the operations underwent two Covid swab, which resulted negative. Conclusions Pituitary surgery is a high risk non-urgent surgery. However, the method described has so far been effective and is safe for both patients and healthcare providers.

Automated summary

This paper illustrates the feasibility of pituitary region surgery during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The results showed that neither healthcare providers nor patients developed Covid symptoms, indicating that the described method is effective and safe for this high-risk non-urgent surgery.