SNC statement COVID-19

Due to the huge stress on the health care system under the current pandemic COVID-19, situations may occur where limited resources require triage and prioritizing of patient admissions in a manner normally not seen in the Nordic countries. This will also affect patients with acute traumatic brain injury (TBI). Given that COVID-19 infection in older patients and in those with comorbidities, have a potentially higher mortality rate than the TBI itself, and that the risk of infection in hospitals may be increased, the SNC suggests that during this limited period, the Scandinavian adult TBI guidelines should be weighed against the individual risk of a COVID-19 infection. In this situation we support that temporary deviance from the guidelines can be motivated and guided by risk-benefit as outlined in the statement above.