Neurotrauma in the time of SARS-COV 2: A checklist for its safe management

Abstract

Neurotrauma is a critical public health problem that deserves the attention of the world health community. The unprecedented pandemic of SARS-COV 2 has led to a tremendous strain on medical facilities including intensive care and availability of blood products. In addition, due to lockdown in most nations and diverting of medical attention elsewhere, neurotrauma has taken a back seat. Despite this, any case of trauma presenting during this time should receive the best possible care. However, it is also imperative to safeguard the health care workers from this infection, too. The number of health care workers losing their lives to this infection is ever rising. We here present a possible workflow using a checklist approach such that errors and cross-infections are minimized and there is no reduction in the level of care received by any trauma case. This article has been written with a special focus on middle-income countries where resources may already be strained due to the sudden case burden. We hope to minimize death "caused"by COVID-19 and "related"to it.