Triaging Spine Surgery and Treatment during the COVID-19 Pandemic

OBJECTIVE: To utilize evidence-based medicine to help determine guidelines for spinal surgery during the Covid-19 era. METHODS: A literature review was performed of peer-reviewed articles focused on indications for common procedures in spine surgery. Based on these indications, we sub-categorized these procedures into elective, urgent and emergent categories. Case examples provided. RESULTS: Indications for spinal surgery were reviewed based on current literature and categorized. This manuscript presents a decision-making algorithm to help provide a guideline for determining the appropriateness of proceeding with spinal surgery during this COVID-19 time period. CONCLUSIONS: Spinal surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic is an intricate challenging decision-making process, involving clinical, sociologic and economic factors.