Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak in spine surgeons in Latin America. Methods: A questionnaire was sent to Latin American spine surgeons from April 4 to 6, 2020. Surgeon characteristics were recorded. The impact of COVID-19 on economic well-being, work, and mental health were also determined. All variables were compared and analyzed. Results: Two hundred four surgeons answered the complete survey; most of them were male (96.6%), the average age was 47.7 years; 58.8% (n = 120) were orthopedic surgeons and 41.2% (n = 84) were neurosurgeons. The majority of the respondents were from Argentina (59.8%, n = 122), followed by Brazil (17.2%, n = 35), Chile (6.4%, n = 13), and Mexico (5.9%, n = 12). Most of the surgeons reported performing emergency procedures only during the pandemic (76.5%, n = 156). Half used telemedicine or online consultation modalities (54.4%, n = 111). The average concern about the financial situation due to the pandemic was 7.53 in a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the worst scenario). Twenty-two percent (n = 45) of the surgeons had a score over 10 in the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9; scores higher than 10 needs referral to confirm depression diagnosis). Young age and neurosurgery as a specialty were associated with higher PHQ-9 scores. Conclusions: COVID-19 has an impact in the daily working practice and financial situation of spine surgeons in Latin America. The long-term psychological impact should be taken into consideration to avoid a heavier burden for health care providers.

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Background: Our aim was to evaluate differences in neurosurgeons versus orthopedists access to technologies needed to perform minimally invasive spine surgeries (MISS) in Latin America. Methods: We sent a survey to members of AO Spine Latin America (January 2020), and assessed the following variables; nationality, level of hospital (primary, secondary, and tertiary), number of spinal operations performed per year, spinal pathologies addressed, the number of minimally invasive spine operations performed/year, and differences in access to MISS spinal technology between neurosurgeons and orthopedists. Results: Responses were returned from 306 (25.6) members of AO Spine Latin America representing 20 different countries; 57.8% of respondents were orthopedic surgeons and 42.4% had over 10 years of experience. Although both specialties reported a lack of access to most of the technologies, the main difference between the two was greater utilization/access of neurosurgeons to operating microscope (e.g., 84% of the neurosurgeons vs. 39% of orthopedic spine surgeons). Conclusion: Although both specialties have limited access to MISS spinal technologies, orthopedic spine surgeons reported significantly lower access to operating microscopes versus neurosurgeons (P < 0.01).

Introducción: Las infecciones del sitio quirúrgico pueden requerir tratamientos prolongados con antibióticos, una estancia hospitalaria más prolongada y operaciones repetidas. Las incisiones pequeñas y la posibilidad de evitar la disección subperióstica en lacirugía mininvasiva pueden reducir, al mínimo, el riesgo de infecciones posoperatorias. Sin embargo, los estudios publicados sobre infecciones después de procedimientos mininvasivos son escasos. El objetivo de este estudio fue evaluar retrospectivamenteuna serie de pacientes operados, de manera consecutiva, con una técnica mininvasiva y la incidencia de infección posoperatoria. Materiales y Métodos: Se incluyó a los pacientes sometidos a cirugía lumbar posterior con retractores tubulares y microscopio, en nuestro Servicio, entre enero de 2015 y enero de 2018. Los procedimientos realizados fueron discectomías tubulares, descompresiones para la estenosis de canal y resecciones de quistes sinoviales. La incidencia de infección del sitio quirúrgico se calculó y comparó con el rango de tasas de infección del sitio quirúrgico publicado. Resultados: Se realizaron cirugías no instrumentadas (discectomías, descompresiones) en 212 pacientes. La media de la edad era de 62.4 años y la relación hombre:mujer, de 1,27:1. Solo un paciente sufrió una infección del sitio quirúrgico, diagnosticada el día 9 poscirugía, que fue tratada mediante lavado y limpieza de la herida. Conclusión: La tasa de infección fue del 0,47%. La cirugía mininvasiva puede disminuir notablemente la tasa de infección del sitio quirúrgico y puede ser una herramienta eficaz para reducir, al mínimo, los costos hospitalarios. Nivel de Evidencia: IV