Reopening the country: Recommendations for nuclear medicine departments

Sanaz Katal; Saif Azam; Emilio Bombardieri; Maria Picchio; Ali Gholamrezanezhad

doi:10.4103/wjnm.WJNM_73_20

Reopening the country: Recommendations for nuclear medicine departments

World J Nucl Med. 2020 Sep 24;20(1):1-6. doi: 10.4103/wjnm.WJNM_73_20. eCollection 2021 Jan-Mar.

Authors

Sanaz Katal¹, Saif Azam², Emilio Bombardieri³, Maria Picchio⁴, Ali Gholamrezanezhad²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nuclear Medicine/PET-CT, Shiraz, Kowsar Hospital, Iran.
² Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, USA.
³ Department of Scientific Direction, Humanitas Gavazzeni, Bergamo, Italy.
⁴ Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Nuclear Medicine Department, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy.

Abstract

The best practices for nuclear medicine departments to operate safely during the COVID-19 pandemic have been debated in the literature recently. However, as many governments have started to ease restrictions in activity due to COVID-19, a set of guidelines is needed to resume routine patient care throughout the world. The nonessential or elective procedures which were previously postponed or canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic will gradually restart in the following weeks despite the continued risks. In this paper, we aim to review some of the most effective general precautions to restart the regular nuclear medicine operations safely.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; nosocomial transmission; nuclear medicine; patient safety; positron emission tomography-computed tomography; precautions; reopening; ventilation/perfusion scintigraphy.

Publication types

Review