World neurosurgery
October 19, 2026 · via Europe PMC
Neurological trauma care in Gaza during prolonged conflict: a retrospective descriptive analysis of aggregated hospital data.
Ayyad A, Al-Salihi MM, Abu-Qadous F, Mustafa AlAmin SA, Alhoobi MMM.
AI summary — for doctors, generated from the abstract only
Neurotrauma care at two Gaza hospitals involved large cranial and spinal injury volumes, with 15% in-hospital mortality among operated patients.
What was studied
Retrospective descriptive analysis of aggregated hospital summaries from European Gaza Hospital and Nasser Medical Complex, October 2023 to October 2025.
Key findings
- 7,876 patients were evaluated and 1,438 (18%) were operated
- Penetrating brain injury was 47% and spinal involvement 38%, including 13% combined cranial-spinal
- Operative in-hospital mortality was 15% (95% CI 13.2-17.0)
Clinical relevance
Planning for conflict neurosurgery must include both cranial and spinal capability.
Who should care
Limitations
Aggregated, de-identified, descriptive data with overlapping categories, no follow-up beyond discharge and no adjustment.
Plan conflict-zone neurosurgical response with spinal as well as cranial capacity.
This is an AI-generated summary of the published abstract, not a clinical recommendation. It may not reflect the full text or subsequent updates — verify against the original source before acting on it.
Abstract
Background
Neurosurgical care during prolonged conflict is constrained by disrupted infrastructure and limited resources. We describe the recorded cranial and spinal trauma workload, interventions, and operative discharge outcomes at two hospitals in Gaza.
Methods
We retrospectively analyzed de-identified aggregate summaries from European Gaza Hospital and Nasser Medical Complex covering October 7, 2023, to October 31, 2025. Analyses were descriptive, using reported cohort denominators. Spinal involvement combined penetrating spinal, closed spinal, and combined cranial-spinal categories. Exact binomial 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated for operative outcomes.
Results
Summaries reported 7,876 patients evaluated and 1,438 operative patients (18%). Penetrating brain injury accounted for 47% (3,684/7,876). Spinal involvement accounted for 38% (2,978/7,876), including 13% with combined cranial-spinal injury (1,028/7,876). Recorded procedures included 758 decompressive craniectomies, 496 craniotomies/foreign-body removals, 385 thoracolumbar fixations, and 139 cervical fixations; groups overlapped. Operative in-hospital mortality was 15% (216/1,438; 95% CI 13.2-17.0), and recorded survival to discharge was 85% (1,222/1,438; 95% CI 83.0-86.8).
Conclusion
Recorded neurotrauma activity encompassed a substantial spinal component alongside cranial injury, supporting inclusion of both cranial and spinal capability in conflict neurosurgical planning. The report provides a descriptive reference for service preparation and preserves a historical record of care at two Gaza hospitals during profound health system disruption.
DOI
10.1016/j.wneu.2026.125432
PMID
42896647
Research metadata (titles, abstracts, authors, publication dates) is sourced from Europe PMC, which aggregates content from PubMed/MEDLINE, PubMed Central, and other providers under the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM/NCBI). NLM does not claim copyright on abstracts; the original journal publishers or authors may hold rights to the full articles. AI-generated summaries are derived only from the abstract, never the full text, and are always labeled as AI-generated.
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