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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · World J Nucl Med 2021; 20(01): 1-6
DOI: 10.4103/wjnm.WJNM_73_20
Review Article

Reopening the country: Recommendations for nuclear medicine departments

Sanaz Katal
Department of Nuclear Medicine/PET-CT, Shiraz, Kowsar Hospital, Iran
,
Saif Azam
1   Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, USA
,
Emilio Bombardieri
2   Department of Scientific Direction, Humanitas Gavazzeni, Bergamo
,
Maria Picchio
3   Vita- Salute San Raffaele University, Nuclear Medicine Department, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy
,
Ali Gholamrezanezhad
1   Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, USA
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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 - nosocomial transmission - nuclear medicine - patient safety - positron emission tomography-computed tomography - precautions - reopening - SARS-CoV-2 - ventilation/perfusion scintigraphy

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.




Publication History

Received: 07 July 2020

Accepted: 24 July 2020

Article published online:
30 March 2022

© 2021. Sociedade Brasileira de Neurocirurgia. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commecial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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