From time to time on Neurosurgery Blog, you will see us cross-posting or linking to items from other places when we believe they hit the mark on an issue. Today’s post originally appeared in The American Spectator on April 1, 2021. In the op-ed, Richard Menger, MD, MPA, assistant professor of neurosurgery and political science at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Ala. and Anthony M. DiGiorgio, DO, MHA, assistant professor of neurosurgery at the University of California San Francisco in San Francisco, Calif. highlight the opportunity for overlapping surgery to assist with the backlog of neurosurgical cases due to COVID-19.
Across the country, many non-urgent surgeries were canceled or delayed due to COVID-19. Overlapping surgery is the practice of a surgeon being responsible for more than one operating room at a time with non-critical portions of the procedure overlapping. When properly and ethically integrated, Drs. Menger and DiGiorgio use overlapping surgery in neurosurgery to better use health care resources and improve access to care.
In 2016, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, American Board of Neurological Surgery, Congress of Neurological Surgeons and Society of Neurological Surgeons issued guidelines for the use of overlapping surgery.
Click here to read the full article in The American Spectator.
Editor’s Note: We encourage everyone to join the conversation online by using the hashtags #Neurosurgery and #COVID19.