Background data
In December of 2019, Covid-19 virus was discovered in the district of Wuhan, China. Within a few weeks, it affected almost every country in all six continents and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). As of the date of writing this paper, there have been more than 85 million confirmed cases and more than 1.7 million deaths worldwide. Given the very high contagiousness of the virus, strict precautions to avoid its spread among the population and particularly in health care facilities have been implemented around the world. Such measures proved to be helpful in providing some control over the spread. Still they were not fail proof in many situations whether in developed or developing countries, thus leading to further spread of the contagion and increased mortality.
Purpose
On February 14, 2020, the first Covid-19 case was reported in Egypt. In this article, we review the steps taken to limit the spread of Covid-19 at a busy tertiary hospital in Cairo, Egypt, and present a case series of patients with spinal trauma presenting during the peak phase of the pandemic in spring of 2020 and the rationale of their management including the first Covid-19 case in Egypt with acute spinal trauma and complete paraplegia operated upon in isolation.
Study design
This was a case series.
Patients and methods
The study was performed for short-term follow-up.
Results
Satisfactory results were obtained in this patient series with good clinical and radiological outcomes.
Conclusion
Precautionary measures are mandatory during the Covid-19 pandemic. TLICS classification is a simple algorithm that can help guide proper management.