The epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis since March 17, 2020—the New York metropolitan area—is home to some of the largest Latino immigrant communities in the nation. These communities have long faced barriers to health care access, challenges due to immigration status, and financial and labor instability. The COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated these existing issues in a vulnerable, often forgotten, immigrant community. It has been challenging for this population to access public information regarding COVID-19 testing, treatment, and assistance programs because this information has seldom been disseminated in Spanish and even less frequently in Portuguese. While long-term solutions will require time and changes to policy, some short-term measures can mitigate the current situation. The authors share their experience from Newark, New Jersey, where partnerships of public and private community-based organizations (CBOs) have been successful in establishing trust between the health care system and a fearful Latino community. The Ironbound Initiative, a student group at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, New Jersey, has partnered with Mantena Global Care, a Brazilian CBO in Newark, to facilitate dissemination of COVID-19–relevant information. Medical student volunteers, removed from their clinical duties, serve as virtual patient navigators, using social media to reach community members with the goals of improving awareness of precautions to take during the pandemic and of increasing access to needed medical care. These students have collaborated with colleagues in other disciplines to provide necessary legal guidance to community members fearful of seeking care because of their immigration status. The authors urge other academic institutions across the country to recruit multidisciplinary teams of medical, health professions, and law students invested in their local communities and to empower students to partner with CBOs, immigrant community leaders, faith-based organizations, hospitals, and local authorities to support these vulnerable communities during this crisis.

OBJECTIVEThere has been much debate regarding the optimal surgical approach for resecting olfactory groove meningiomas (OGMs). In this paper, the authors analyzed the factors involved in approach selection and reviewed the surgical outcomes in a series of OGMs.METHODSA retrospective review of 28 consecutive OGMs from a prospective database was conducted. Each tumor was treated via one of 3 approaches: transbasal approach (n = 15), pure endoscopic endonasal approach (EEA; n = 5), and combined (endoscope-assisted) transbasal-EEA (n = 8).RESULTSThe mean tumor volume was greatest in the transbasal (92.02 cm3) and combined (101.15 cm3) groups. Both groups had significant lateral dural extension over the orbits (transbasal 73.3%, p < 0.001; combined 100%), while the transbasal group had the most cerebral edema (73.3%, p < 0.001) and vascular involvement (66.7%, p < 0.001), and the least presence of a cortical cuff (33.3%, p = 0.019). All tumors in the combined group were recurrent tumors that invaded into the sinonasal cavity. The purely EEA group had the smallest mean tumor volume (33.33 cm3), all with a cortical cuff and no lateral dural extension. Gross-total resection was achieved in 80% of transbasal, 100% of EEA, and 62.5% of combined cases. Near-total resection (> 95%) was achieved in 20% of transbasal and 37.5% of combined cases, all due to tumor adherence to the critical neurovascular structures. The rate of CSF leakage was 0% in the transbasal and combined groups, and there was 1 leak in the EEA group (20%), resulting in an overall CSF leakage rate of 3.6%. Olfaction was preserved in 66.7% in the transbasal group. There was no significant difference in length of stay or 30-day readmission rate between the 3 groups. The mean modified Rankin Scale score was 0.79 after the transbasal approach, 2.0 after EEA, and 2.4 after the combined approach (p = 0.0604). The mean follow-up was 14.5 months (range 1–76 months).CONCLUSIONSThe transbasal approach provided the best clinical outcomes with the lowest rate of complications for large tumors (> 40 mm) and for smaller tumors (< 40 mm) with intact olfaction. The role of EEA appears to be limited to smaller, appropriately selected tumors in which olfaction is already absent. EEA also plays an important adjunctive role when combined with the transbasal approach for recurrent OGMs invading the sinonasal cavity. Careful patient selection using an individualized, tailored strategy is important to optimize surgical outcomes.