Massimi, L., Cinalli, G., Frassanito, P., Arcangeli, V., Auer, C., Baro, V., Bartoli, A., Bianchi, F., Dietvorst, S., Di Rocco, F., Gallo, P., Giordano, F., Hinojosa, J., Iglesias, S., Jecko, V., Kahilogullari, G., Knerlich-Lukoschus, F., Laera, R., Locatelli, D., Luglietto, D., Luzi, M., Messing-Jünger, M., Mura, R., Ragazzi, P., Riffaud, L., Roth, J., Sagarribay, A., Pinheiro, M. Santos, Spazzapan, P., Spennato, P., Syrmos, N., Talamonti, G., Valentini, L., Van Veelen, M. L., Zucchelli, M., Tamburrini, G., Massimi, L., Cinalli, G., Frassanito, P., Arcangeli, V., Auer, C., Baro, V., Bartoli, A., Bianchi, F., Dietvorst, S., Di Rocco, F., Gallo, P., Giordano, F., Hinojosa, J., Iglesias, S., Jecko, V., Kahilogullari, G., Knerlich-Lukoschus, F., Laera, R., Locatelli, D., Luglietto, D., Luzi, M., Messing-Jünger, M., Mura, R., Ragazzi, P., Riffaud, L., Roth, J., Sagarribay, A., Pinheiro, M. Santos, Spazzapan, P., Spennato, P., Syrmos, N., Talamonti, G., Valentini, L., Van Veelen, M. L., Zucchelli, M., and Tamburrini, G.
Background: COVID-19 pandemic is thought to have changed the epidemiology of some pediatric neurosurgical disease: among them are the intracranial complications of sinusitis and otitis (ICSO). According to some studies on a limited number of cases, both streptococci-related sinusitis and ICSO would have increased immediately after the pandemic, although the reason is not clear yet (seasonal changes versus pandemic-related effects). The goal of the present survey of the European Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery (ESPN) was to collect a large number of cases from different European countries encompassing the pre-COVID (2017–2019), COVID (2020–2021), and post-COVID period (2022–June 2023) looking for possible epidemiological and/or clinical changes. Material and methods: An English language questionnaire was sent to ESPN members about year of the event, patient’s age and gender, presence of immune-deficit or other favoring risk factors, COVID infection, signs and symptoms at onset, site of primary infection, type of intracranial complication, identified germ, type and number of surgical operations, type and duration of medical treatment, clinical and radiological outcome, duration of the follow-up. Results: Two hundred fifty-four cases were collected by 30 centers coming from 14 different European countries. There was a statistically significant difference between the post-COVID period (129 children, 86 cases/year, 50.7% of the whole series) and the COVID (40 children, 20 cases/year, 15.7%) or the pre-COVID period (85 children, 28.3 cases/year, 33.5%). Other significant differences concerned the presence of predisposing factors/concurrent diseases (higher in the pre-COVID period) and previous COVID infection (higher in the post-COVID period). No relevant differences occurred as far as demographic, microbiological, clinical, radiological, outcome, morbidity, and mortality data were concerned. Paranasal sinuses