Prevention and control of COVID-19 in neurointerventional surgery: expert consensus from the Chinese Federation of Interventional and Therapeutic Neuroradiology (CFITN) and the International Society for Neurovascular Disease (ISNVD).

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been spreading in many countries, and this coronavirus epidemic has been labeled a world pandemic by the WHO.1 2 Although the epidemic has been basically controlled by the cooperation of central and local governments in China, nevertheless more than 3000 medical staff have been infected during the fight against the virus.3 4 Stroke is a common disease with high morbidity, high disability, high mortality and high recurrence rate. Neurointervention plays an important role in the diagnosis and treatment of stroke, especially for acute stroke, which could significantly reduce the mortality and disability rates.5 6 During the epidemic, neurointerventional staff are faced with the dual pressures of disease treatment and infection prevention. Therefore, the Chinese Federation of Interventional and Therapeutic Neuroradiology (CFITN) and the International Society for Neurovascular Disease (ISNVD) have called on neurointerventional specialists from departments of neurosurgery, neurology, and interventional radiology to discuss and compile this expert consensus based on their working experience in fighting against the epidemic and related regulations issued by National Health Commission7–9 The aim was to provide protective strategies and recommendations for medical staff to carry out neurointerventional procedures under the circumstances of the COVID-19 epidemic, and to provide references for neurointerventional physicians around the world. First, according to clinical needs, neurointerventional surgery can be divided into emergency and elective surgery (or non-emergency surgery). It is recommended to suspend non-emergency neurointerventional surgeries, especially for the highly suspected and confirmed patients during the epidemic period. Second, neurointerventional staff should participate in the training to update their knowledge of the epidemic, especially the epidemiological characteristics and diagnostic criteria of COVID-19 (figure 1), the stratified precautions for medical staff during the COVID-19 epidemic (table 1), and the instructions …